Love on a Case
by TelepathicMelody
Summary: The BAU is called to work on a case in Westchester New York where people are dying and there seems to be no connection that the team can discover. No connection that is until they talk to the latest victim's brother, Charles Xavier.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

((Author's Note: This is a story based off of a role play my friend, UnstopableArcricVamp, and I did.))

Spencer Reid and Derek Morgan walked into the large mansion in Westchester, New York. They were reporting to the scene of their latest case in which people were being murdered in this location. This was the seventh victim in this town within a couple months. There also was nothing that tethered them together except for the fact that the crime scenes appeared to be caused by the same unsub (unknown subject). They came into the room where a girl laid dead. Her skin was a darker blue tone, her hair was very short and flaming red.

"What the?" escaped Reid's lips.

"What is she?" Morgan questioned out loud.

"She's a girl," came a voice behind them. They both turned around to see a shorter brunette man standing behind them. His blue eyes were red and a bit swollen from all the tears he had shed. "Her name is Raven. She's my sister, s-she was just a normal girl," he wiped his tears.

Reid looked over to Morgan sadly and then went over to the new boy. "We're sorry about your lost. I'm Dr. Spencer Reid, and this is Agent Derek Morgan. M-May I ask you a few questions?" he asked.

The other boy nodded, "C-Can we talk o-outside of this r-room?" he asked glancing at Raven's body lying on the ground. She had burn marks all over her along with cuts (some deep, some superficial).

Reid nodded and led him out of the room and they headed outside to the gardens. "I'm truly sorry about all of this."

"Thank you. Raven was a good girl... a great sister. Who would do this?" he cried.

Reid handed him a handkerchief. "That's why my team and I are here. We will do everything we can to find who did this and to bring them to justice."

"I-I know, but this sh-shouldn't have happened in the first place. R-Raven can't be… she c-can't be g-gone," he sat down on a bench outside and cried into his hand.

"Would anyone want to hurt her? Did she make any enemies?"

"She was a very vocal girl. She didn't take any crap from anyone. She was a good friend and sister. She probably did have some people that didn't like her for it, but she didn't pick fights. She would defend her friends and me…"

"What do you mean?"

"Being the nerd in school and a freak is hard. People used to bully me, but Raven would stand up for me."

"She sounds like a great friend and a wonderful sister."

"She was," he nodded. "She was the only family I had left, honestly the only family really I ever had."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thank you. I can't believe she's really gone."

Reid reached over and rubbed the other man's back. He then saw Morgan come out, "Thank you for your time, Sir."

"Charles," the man said. "You can call me Charles. P-Please find who did this?"

"We will do what we can… Charles," Reid nodded and walked over to Morgan. "That was our victim's brother, Charles. He's pretty torn up about everything that has happened here. Can't be easy seeing your only family like that…" he trailed off.

"It's a really weird crime scene we've got here," Morgan nodded. "Our victim definitely struggled. She's goes multiple cuts and several small burns all over her. The coroner is not sure what the cause of death is yet, but it probably is the same thing as our other victims: severely burnt insides. There is one difference with this victim though."

"What's that?" Reid asked as they walked to the car.

"This victim was tortured, almost like she was the object of the unsub's rage or maybe our unsub is gaining confidence. Either way, we have to figure out the connection with each victim and fast before our guy strikes again," Morgan hopped in the driver's seat and they drove to the police station.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The team sat at the police station trying to find a lead on their unsub in the Westchester case. One step in figuring out a profile is to look at victimology. In this case, it was rather difficult due to the fact that there was no obvious connection to the victims except that they were all from the same town. Their locations were all over the map for both where they lived and where their murders happened. This is unusual for an unsub even when the victims are all just victims of opportunity. The only thing that connected them was the manner in which they all perished. All had their insides burned up, almost like a small fireball went off inside of them. Nothing else matched, their ages, genders, race, and everything was so completely different.

"This is pointless," Morgan sighed heavily as he tossed down the file. "There is nothing in common with any of these victims. Even Garcia couldn't find a link. And why is this newest victims blue?"

"Only thing we can figure is that she was the target of our guy's rage or the unsub is gaining confidence," Agent Hotchner, the team leader, said.

"We never did find out why she was blue," Reid spoke up, "maybe we could ask Charles, her brother. Maybe he might know what connects each of the victims as well. Sometimes the local population knows things that Garcia can't find out," he shrugged.

"Very true," Hotch nodded. "Alright, Reid, why don't you go talk to the brother and see if he knows anything that could help us out in this case. Morgan and I will go see the coroner."

Reid nodded and headed back to the mansion where the latest victim was found.

Reid knocked on the door of the mansion and Charles answered the door, "Uh, h-hello, Dr. Reid."

"Please, call me Spencer," he offered a small smile.

"Come on in, uh, S-Spencer," he rubbed the back of his neck and opened the door wider for him to come. "Anything I can do for you? Can I get you a drink?" he asked.

"No thank you, I'm alright. My team and I are investigating a string of murders that have been happening here in Westchester. We are completely at a loss though for how our unsub, the killer, is choosing his victims. We were wondering if maybe you might be able to help us out."

"I can try my best," Charles nodded and led them to the living area so they could sit down.

"Maybe we could start with looking at Raven, your sister? Did you maybe do anything to make anyone angry with her? Did she have any enemies?"

Charles let out a small laugh, "She was pretty outspoken so it is possible some people did not like her terribly much. She was sweet and kind, but she did have a mouth. She did only use it though to defend those around her."

"Would anyone want to kill her?"

"Though she had a mouth sometimes, I don't see why anyone would decide to kill her for that. As I said, she mostly went off on others to protect those she cared about. Hardly warrants murder."

"Do you mind if I ask a question?"

"You wish to know why her skin was blue?" Charles more so told rather than asked.

Reid still nodded to the question, "In all the pictures we've seen of her for driver's license and other pictures, she was a white, blonde haired girl."

He nodded, "She preferred that look. She was a mutant, and her power allowed her to transform into anyone and look any way she preferred. Her natural look was where she appeared to be blue skinned with dark red hair and yellow eyes. She never felt she could walk around in public like that so she was always using her mutation to look like the pictures you have seen."

"Mutant? Mutation?"

"Precisely. Mutants possess a mutated gene called the X-gene. It grants the person extraordinary abilities such as the ability to morph into someone else, or the power to regenerate, or the power to control the weather, and so many other possibilities."

"That is really incredible," Reid beamed.

"Does that help?" Charles asked.

"Oh uh yeah," he nodded. "Think maybe you can find the connection between all of these victims?" he pulled out the file and gave it to Charles.

Charles opened the file and bit his lip a bit seeing the crime scenes.

"Sorry about that."

"No it's alright," he pulled out the victim's driver's license pictures to look at them and looked at their names as well. He nibbled on his lip.

"Are you alright?" Reid asked seeing how scared Charles looked.

"Y-Yeah, it's just… I um think I know the connection… What was the cause of death?" he asked.

"It's kind of complicated. It's like a fireball went off inside of them where it burned their internal organs," Reid explained.

Charles shut the folder and gave it back to Reid, "Y-You sure? S-Same for Raven?"

"Uh yeah. She had a bit more burns and scratches. She put up a fight, but our unsub seemed to have taken out some rage on her…" he quietly confessed, and as Reid explained everything, the color drained from Charles's face.

"I know who the next victim is going to be…"

"What?! Who?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"I know who the next victim is going to be…" Charles nervously said looking at the case file of the latest serial killer.

"What? Who?" Reid asked looking over.

"M-Me," Charles said.

"What?!"

"I'm the last one. I'm the next and last victim here," he got up and turned away.

Reid reached out and grabbed his hand, "What makes you believe that?" he pulled him closer.

"He's going after mutants. Not just mutants but mutants who believe humans and mutants can coexist."

"What?"

"Sebastian Shaw. He's a mutant who hates humans. He doesn't think we can coexist, but I think we can all live together. H-He killed Raven because he hates me and my ideas," he started to cry. "Raven is dead because of me."

"You are not to blame for this," Reid hugged him. "You didn't do anything."

"It's all my fault she's gone."

"No it's not," Reid kept ahold of him, rocking him for a bit until Charles finally calmed down.

"I'm sorry about that," he dried his eyes, stepping back from the FBI agent.

"There's nothing to apologize for. You said Sebastian Shaw?"

"Y-Yeah… he's a mutant who has the power to absorb energy and later can use that energy… He can make little fireballs… All of these victims are all the mutants who oppose his idea that humans are inferior and must be eliminated. A-All the mutants in Westchester except one…" he looked down.

"Alright, I'm going to take you to the police station with me and you will be put under protection and we will catch this guy. Alright?"

Charles nodded to this and followed Reid to the car.

"Hotch, we just got a lead on the case, and by lead I mean Charles figured everything out," Reid came into the police station with Charles close by.

"You figured everything out?" Hotch asked the other man.

"Y-Yes… I think so…" Charles nodded to him. "All of these victims are all mutants. Mutants who believe that humans and mutants can coexist. There are other mutants in this town, but they believe that humans are inferior and must be eliminated. The leader of the other group is a man named Sebastian Shaw who can absorb energy and later use that energy to hurt people, like making fireballs. He tried recruiting every mutant but some of us opposed his views. Raven was much more vocal than the others, but some people kind of followed me…" he quietly said.

"So you're saying you're the next target?" Hotch asked.

Charles slowly nodded, "There's no other mutants besides Shaw's Hellfire Club. You guys said that Raven seemed to have it worse than the other victims. Shaw and Raven always got into disagreements, but he mostly seemed to hate me… H-He went after Raven first to hurt me…" he hugged himself.

"We'll keep you safe and start looking for this Sebastian Shaw," Hotch offered a small smile and called Garcia. "Garcia, I need you to find out everything you can about a Sebastian Shaw in the area. Also… I need you to find out what you can on human mutations."

"What kind of mutations are there?" Reid asked Charles

"There are a lot of different types of mutations. Incredible mutations," Charles looked over.

"What kinds of mutations do Shaw and his followers have?"

"I'm not entirely sure what their mutations are. I know a few of them, but not all. Shaw's right hand woman is Emma Frost who is a telepath. She can read minds and control minds."

"Control minds?" Morgan spoke up.

"Uh yeah," Charles looked down. "She can read people's minds and control them where she can make people do what she wants. She can make people think what she wants them to think."

"That sounds really creepy," Morgan muttered under his breath.

"Uh yeah…" Charles nervously said, twiddling his thumbs a bit. "Uh yeah. Not only that, but she can turn herself into diamond form so nothing can hurt her and when she's in diamond form a telepath can't be used against her. There's another guy who recently joined the group. I am not sure if he is able to control the weather. I have only ever seen him control tornados."

"Tornados?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure about the other guy in the group. I haven't seen his mutation or anything."

"Well at least we know what we're kind of up against," Morgan said.

"Not sure how much help it is when it's hard to combat it…" Charles looked down. "Guns don't work very well against Shaw or Emma Frost. Not to mention Emma is able to keep her and her friend's minds from other telepaths."

"Because she's a telepath?" Reid asked.

"No, because of her diamond form. Nothing can penetrate it, not even a telepath. She's powerful in her own right, but that diamond form gives her an ability that I do not think any other telepath possesses. Besides her, there's also the unknown mutant who I don't know what to expect."

"We will do what we can to keep you safe," Reid softly said putting his hand on Charles's shoulder.

"Thank you."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Charles was curled up in a chair in the office of the police station. Reid knocked on the door, "Would you like some coffee?" he asked holding two cups of coffee, holding one out to Charles.

"Oh thank you, that would be great," Charles took one of them.

"Anything I can do for you?" he asked sitting across from him, "Has to be boring just sitting around in the police station. Do you play chess?"

"Uh yeah, I um actually love to play chess," he brushed back his bangs.

Reid beamed a bit and got the chess board out, "Would you like to be white or black?"

"Doesn't matter," Charles shrugged as he sat up and helped set up the board.

"You can go first," Reid offered and spun the board around so the white pieces were in front of Charles and the black pieces in front of himself. As Charles moved his first pawn, Reid asked, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"You seem to know a lot about mutations."

"I would hope so," Charles laughed softly watching Reid move a black pawn. "I studied genetic mutations at university."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. I have a doctorate in genetics, a bachelor's in psychology, and a master's in education," he looked at the board contemplating his move. He finally moved another pawn of his.

"That is quite impressive," Reid stared at him.

Charles looked up and turned red, "Too much?"

He laughed, "No, I just am surprised because you do not seem old enough to have so many degrees."

"I'm 26. What about yourself?"

"Age or degrees?"

"Both?" he laughed softly.

"I'm 27. I've got three bachelor's in psychology, sociology, and philosophy. I also have three Ph. D's in chemistry, engineering, and mathematics."

"Wow," Charles stared wide eyed at Reid which made Reid turn a shade of red himself.

"So um, genetics and education?" the young FBI agent quickly changed subjects. "That's an interesting combination. Interested in teaching genetics?"

"Uh actually my goal was a little bit different," he rubbed the back of his neck. "I wanted to open a school for mutants."

"Really?" Reid asked and moved a pawn remembering it was his turn.

"Yeah. I wanted to create a place for mutants to come to and feel safe. There are so many anti-mutant campaigns around the world and many mutants feel alone or isolated from their kind. A school for mutants would be a wonderful chance to bring mutants together in a safe environment. Young mutants can learn what they would learn in the public school system as well as maybe learn how to control their abilities."

"You could teach them to control their mutations?"

"At least attempt to," Charles sheepishly answered. "Some mutations are simple to learn how to control and others can unlock an endless world of possibilities," he smiled and moved a chess piece.

"That sounds rather incredible. Why not do it?"

"What?"

"Why not open the school?" he asked moving his black knight. "You used the past tense in your explanation. You wanted to do that."

"I'm not sure what to do now…" Charles looked down. "Raven and I always talked about the idea and she was a great part of the planning. It just… seems weird and wrong without her."

"She would want you to continue with your dream, Charles," he softly said.

"I know, but still…" he moved his bishop.

"So what's your mutation?"

"Wh-What?"

"Sorry that was a little direct wasn't it," Reid twiddled his thumbs.

"No it's alright, I just wasn't expecting it. What makes you ask?"

"You talked about all of these fascinating mutations and you said this unsub has been attacking mutants and you were next. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he quickly added the last sentence.

"No it's fine. Promise you won't freak out?" he nervously shifted in his seat.

"I'll do my best." Charles pouted a bit at that response. "Alright, I promise," Reid laughed at that softly.

"That's not very convincing…" he whined.

"I promise I will not freak out."

"I'm a telepath," he mumbled.

"What?"

"I'm a telepath…"

"You can read minds?" Reid asked to which Charles nodded, looking down. "So that's why you had that bit to add about Emma's mutation. I think telepathy is incredible."

"What?"

"I think it's incredible."

"Really? Y-You don't think it's creepy like Agent Morgan?"

"Are you creeping into my thoughts right now?"

"Not on purpose. Telepathy is like being in a crowded room where everyone is talking. You hear everyone, but you have to focus on a certain person or certain group in order to actually listen to what they are saying."

"I actually really like that explanation. It explains how telepathy works in a simple simile," Reid smiled and looked at the chess board, "Maybe this game isn't that fair."

"I'm not focusing on your thoughts," Charles whined.

"I know," he laughed. "Promise not to use your telepathy?"

"Promise not to think very loud?"

"That makes no sense."

"It's really hard to explain. Don't just focus on your next move?"

"We'll see how things go?"

"I'll let you know if it's getting too unfair," he smiled and moved his white knight.

"Now who's not sounding very convincing?" Reid laughed at that as he moved his other bishop by one of Charles's pawns.

"More like who's now sounding very cocky?" Charles teased with a smile as he took one of Reid's pawn.

So the two continued to play chess for a few rounds before Agent Hotchner knocked on the door and came in, "Sorry to interrupt, but can I borrow Dr. Reid for a moment?" Charles nodded looking a little concerned between the two FBI agents. "It's nothing to worry about," Hotch assured him seeing the concern.

"I'll be right back," Reid smiled at Charles, patting his upper arm.

"Alright," Charles slowly nodded.

Reid left the room with Hotch, "What's going on? Did you guys find a lead on Shaw yet?"

Hotch shook his head, "No, nothing yet. We just noticed how late it was getting and we haven't had any new developments for the past couple hours."

"Oh, I don't know if that's a good thing or not," the younger agent nervously shifted.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. We were gonna call it a night, but we're not sure what to do," he glanced into the office where Charles curled back into the seat and starting reading a magazine that was left in the office.

Reid looked confused for a moment thinking that Hotch had stopped midsentence, but then followed his gaze into the room. "Oh, with it being late, we can't leave Charles alone, but we probably all need some rest don't we?"

"Yeah. No one wants to sleep in a police station overnight. So the question is if we should send some agents to his place with him to sleep overnight or whether he would be safer in a hotel."

"I doubt Charles would want to go back into the mansion. He couldn't stand to be near the entry way close to where Raven was murdered…" he glanced down. "Both times I went over, he wanted to talk outside. He didn't want to be near that place."

"I don't blame him after he discovered his sister like that… plus it would probably be better for him to be outside of that place because Shaw already got into that place once, so what will stop him from trying again?"

"So we get a hotel room for him?"

"Well… then the issue comes up about him being in a room by himself. Shaw may be following us, waiting for that opportunity," he kept his eyes in the room. "Plus, we have no idea what his followers will do or even what they can do considering their own special abilities."

"I could room with him?" Reid offered.

"You would be okay with that?"

"Sure."

"Alright. We will probably head out in a little bit if you want to let Charles know. We can stop by his place to get him whatever he needs too."

"Alright, thank you, sir," Reid nodded and Hotch headed back to the room they had set-up in. Reid went back into the room.

"Any word on Shaw?" Charles asked nervously, setting the magazine down.

"No new news for a couple hours," the agent quietly said.

"I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not…" he glanced down hearing that.

"Me neither," the other confessed shifting a bit and glancing at his watch. "It's getting rather late."

"Oh yeah. I suppose it is. I should probably go, shouldn't I?" Charles got up and hugged himself a bit uncomfortable about the situation.

"Well that's what Hotch and I were talking about. It probably wouldn't be best for you to go back to your home. Shaw already got in there once," brown eyes darted down thinking that it probably was not the best thing to say or the best way to phrase the situation.

"I suppose that's right… not that the mansion is really much of a home now without her there…" Charles's own blue eyes avoided contact with Reid's.

"And being alone anyways would probably be a bad mistake. Hotch was thinking that maybe you could stay in the hotel the team is staying in. If you would like, I could room with you?" he offered.

"Really? You would uh want to room with me?"

"Sure. You need to be protected and we've been getting along," Reid smiled at him softly. "We can go by your place and get whatever you need for the night before we head to the hotel."

"Th-Thank you, Spencer."

"You're welcome, Charles."

Reid drove up to the mansion and walked in with Charles, who was hesitant walking in. "It'll be okay. I'm right here with you," he offered a small smile and put a hand on his gun, pulling it out of its holster.

Charles smiled seeing that, "Thank you. I don't think that is entirely necessary. It doesn't seem as though anyone is here," he put two fingers to his temple to remind Reid of his mutation.

"Didn't you say that Emma could block you?"

"O-Oh, uh r-right," he turned a bit pink forgetting about that bit of information.

"It's okay," he assured, "Just a precaution."

Charles nodded and stopped by the room where Raven had been found earlier that day. He bit his lip and looked down at it, stopping. It had been cleaned up so it would be hard to imagine a murder having happened in this very room just today. Charles, though, could still picture how he had found Raven and he could never get the image of the blood out of his mind. Reid came up beside the telepath and put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Charles. It's understandable."

"It still seems so pathetic," he wiped a tear streak from his cheek. "I can barely walk into this place because I pass by this room and I can still see her… lying there… all the blood…" he hid his face with his hand. "Of course the other rooms I see her standing in them and remember that I will never see her again. She's gone. Raven is gone," with that, he broke down crying.

Reid pulled him into a hug, "That is perfectly normal. You and your sister seemed very close."

"She was the only family I had," the smaller man leaned into the FBI agent's touch. "I was supposed to protect her. She did everything for me and I couldn't protect her when she needed me. I wasn't here for her. I failed her."

"I doubt she would agree with that. You guys were together a lot weren't you?"

"We were. She was my closest friend. She'd even joke about how she was my only friend," he managed a small laugh through his crying as he remembered her teasing him about that. "She was supposed to be safe with me. I promised to keep her safe when I took her in."

"I'm sure she would say she was safer here than anywhere else. I'm sure she felt safe with you around and would hate to see you like this."

"I can't help it. I'm sorry for breaking down like this."

"Why don't we head to your room and get what you need for the night? We'll get out of here as quick as you would like?" Reid proposed and felt Charles's head nod against his chest.

The shorter brunette slowly pulled away and wiped his eyes, "I'm sorry to have broken down like this."

"Don't apologize. It's okay," the taller man offered Charles a tissue from the box in the hallway. "Which way to your room?"

Charles dabbed his eyes and sniffled as he pointed down the hallway, "Up the stairs and down the left side. Follow me," he started walking along beside Reid.

Charles led him up to his room, "Uh this is my room," he gestured around the room. He pulled out a duffle bag and started to pack some of his things he would need for a couple of nights.

Reid looked over and saw the bookcase and started looking at all the titles, trailing his finger over the spines of the books. "Wow, these are incredible."

"You're impressed by this little collection?" Charles asked a bit surprised.

"You're not? Wait, little?" he gawked at the other man.

Charles laughed at that, "Come on, I've gotta show you something then," he grabbed Reid's hand and dragged him a few doors down. He opened the doors to reveal a large study where the walls were bookcases full of books. Many of the books seemed to be older books. Charles turned to look at Reid's reaction.

Brown eyes were wide open in aww at all the books. "This is amazing. These are yours? These are all books you own?"

"Well, uh, I suppose you could say that. These were my father's. This is his old study. He loved to read," he shifted a bit nervously as Reid walked around looking at all the titles. The agent pulled one out and started to skim the book. "You can take the book with you."

"What?" he looked up.

"You can take the book to the hotel with you?"

"Really?" Reid beamed like a kid in the candy store being told he could pick anything. "C-Could I take another one?"

"Think you'll have that much time to read it?" Charles asked him.

"I can read 20,000 words per minute," the tint crept up on his cheeks. "Our conscious mind can process 16 bits of information per second, our unconscious, however, can process 11 million."

"Wow, that is incredible. That's how you were able to graduate with so many degrees," the younger man teased. "Feel free to take a third if you would like for tonight."

"Thank you, that would be wonderful," he hugged him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next morning, Reid woke up early. He looked over and saw the other bed taken. He saw the tuft of brunette hair sticking out and he smiled softly. He got up and stretched before grabbing his clothes for the new day. He changed in the bathroom and did his morning routine before coming back into the room. He saw Charles still passed out and went to shake him awake. "Good morning, Charles," Reid softly spoke.

Charles groaned and threw his blankets over his head.

"Come on now. It's time to wake up. We've got to go by the office."

"Why?" the British accent whined still sleepy,

"Because we've still got to find Shaw and his goons. The whole team will be at the police station. A whole lot of men with a whole lot of guns ready to protect you."

"I feel like a charity case when you phrase it like that," the whining continued, though Charles now managed to throw the blanket off of his face.

"Oh please. Like you could be a charity case," Reid laughed at that.

"You're mocking the poor boy for his parents' wealth?" he pouted.

"Maybe."

"Isn't part of protecting me to protect me from harassment like that?" Charles yawned as he sat up and stretched.

"Only from Shaw. Now come on, let's get ready to go. We can grab some breakfast with the team if you would like?" Reid sat on his bed.

"That actually sounds kind of nice," Charles smiled softly and grabbed some clothes from his duffle bag. "I'll be ready in a moment."

"Sounds good," he smiled back and pulled out one of the books he had borrowed from Mr. Xavier's old study.

After a bit, Reid and Charles met the team in the front. "Morning guys," Reid waved to them. Charles clung a bit to Reid, a little shy. He hadn't met the rest of the team really.

"Who's the cutie hiding behind you?" Morgan teased which made Charles turn red and hide behind Reid a bit more.

"This is Charles Xavier. Charles this is the team: Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau, Emily Prentiss, Jason Gideon, and Aaron Hotchner."

"P-Pleasure to meet you guys. Thank you for all that you guys are doing," he quietly said.

"We're not going to hurt you. Don't worry," Morgan smiled at him and stretched out his hand. "We're sorry you have to put up with our little Pretty Boy," he teased Reid.

"Pretty Boy?" Charles tilted his head, looking at Reid.

"Yeah, it's the nickname Morgan gave me," the taller man sighed.

"I think it's perfect," Charles chuckled.

"Care to join us for some food?" Hotch asked him.

"That sounds really nice. Thank you," he nodded to him.

"Come on, let's get going," Hotch directed and everyone started getting into the FBI SUVs. Charles followed Reid and sat beside him.

The BAU and Charles were sitting at the table in the middle of their breakfast. "I find it interesting what you guys do," Charles said as he sat between Reid and Jennifer Jareau, JJ. "Using behavior to tract serial killers."

"We also have handled serial rapists and terrorist attacks," Emily nodded.

"Really? Terrorist attacks?" Charles asked.

"Yeah. We stop the bad guys that we can," Reid smiled at him.

"You guys seem pretty impressive," Charles smiled at them.

"Not as impressive as you seem to be," Morgan teased.

"Wh-What?" Charles nearly spat out his water.

"According to our pretty little birdy in Quantico you have a pretty impressive resume," Morgan explained. "A doctorate in genetics, a bachelor's in psychology, and a master's in education? Pretty impressive."

"Oh that's not really anything, especially compared to Spencer's list of degrees," Charles waved a hand of modesty.

"Our resident genius does know quite a lot," Morgan nodded in agreement, "but your list is still more than a lot of people. Especially holding your degrees from such an elite school." Charles turned dark red with that bit of information being shared.

"Oh which elite school did you attend?"

"Oh uh, it's not really that amazing," the shorter man waved off. "Who's this little birdy?"

"Her name is Penelope Garcia. She's our tech person. She is able to find a lot of information with her computer. And please, Oxford University isn't that amazing? Really?"

"Oxford University? As in England's Oxford?" Reid's jaw dropped in amazement. Charles nodded in answer. "You are amazing, Charles!" Reid gawked.

"Oh please, I'm sure you've gone to several Ivy League schools to get your large number of degrees," he hid his face.

"Not Oxford. That might explain the accent then," Reid laughed.

"Actually, my mom was British so I inherited her accent. You saw where I grew up. I always lived in the mansion. Born and raised in Westchester."

"Really?"

"That's really hard to believe?"

"Not really, though you have only called your childhood home the mansion since we started talking. You haven't called it home ever." Reid pointed out.

Charles glanced down. "Hard to call that place home… Raven was my home. The moment she died I didn't have a home and that mansion was only home when she lived there too," he rubbed his arms nervously.

"I'm sorry," Reid glanced down himself.

"So genetic mutations?" Hotch piped up from his seat at the table. "What got you interested in that?"

"Um well I uh…" Charles stammered not expecting the sudden change in topic nor expecting that topic to come up so quickly. "I uh have a mutation… so I got really interested in the subject and started studying a lot. I used to think I was the only one… until I met Raven. From there I discovered there were so many mutants living in this world. My old friend Hank McCoy actually built a machine that would enable me to connect with every mutant on Earth."

"How does it do that?" Reid asked.

"What is your mutation if I may ask," JJ inquired beside Charles.

"I'm uh… telepath… so the machine amplifies my mutation to let me connect to everyone in the world with my telepathy. It really is quite extraordinary."

"And you claim to not be impressive," Reid stared at Charles like he was the most incredible person he had ever laid his eyes on. This stare made Charles turn a dark shade of red.

"I'm not really that impressive. You guys are the ones protecting me and making sure I will be safe. I think that qualifies as much more impressive than some little magic trick."

"Magic trick? Please, Charles. You've got an incredible power." Gideon spoke up quietly.

"You guys never heard what Charles originally wanted to do," Reid beamed. "He really is incredible."

"Oh?" everyone looked over at their new companion.

"Well it wasn't that big of a deal," Charles dropped his head though his blush was still evident to everyone at the round table. "Raven and I always talked about opening up a school for mutants. We would go around America at least and find mutants who could use a safe place. We would teach what the public schools taught, but would also cover mutations. I wanted to try to help mutants learn their abilities: being able to control their abilities or being able to unlock their potential."

"I think that does make you pretty incredible. Why not continue with that?" Hotch asked.

"It just seems a little weird without Raven being by my side. I have no idea what I will do now, but opening the school would feel awkward without her."

"I think you should do whatever your heart tells you to do. Raven would want you to continue with your dream if that is your dream. If you have another dream, she would want you to follow that," Hotch offered. "I think she would just want you to be happy."

"Thank you Agent Hotchner," Charles softly smiled across to him.

"Please, call me Hotch. Everyone else does," he laughed softly to which Charles nodded with a small laugh of his own.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Thank you for letting me join you guys for breakfast," Charles said as they stepped into the police station.

"Thank you for paying even though you didn't have to," Hotch nodded.

"You guys are already doing so much for me. The least I could do was pay for a meal," he laughed softly, rubbing his arms nervously.

"We better get back to work to find Shaw," Morgan patted Charles's shoulder.

"Thank you," he nodded to him and Reid led him to the office to sit down while the rest of the team started making calls, examining pictures, and examining the case file. "Thank you especially, Spencer."

"For what?" Reid sat down across from him and started setting up the chess board for them to play a couple of rounds.

"You're the one who has to be stuck with me," he laughed softly. "You've got the worse end of the deal."

"I wouldn't say that," he laughed himself. "You're pretty good company. I feel bad that out of the whole team you got stuck with me. I'm sure Morgan would have been better company. JJ I think is a little jealous now after meeting you," he laughed.

"Jealous that I get all of your time?" he teased.

"More jealous that she doesn't get to spend time with you."

"I'm not that much a joy. All I do is read and play chess. Raven always teased me that I was a bore and would never find a partner."

"You haven't found a lucky lady yet?" Reid asked as they started their chess game, him moving his pawn.

"No not yet. No one has shown much of an interest Who has time for a committed relationship while focusing on school?" he moved his own pawn. "Especially when working on a doctrine in genetic mutations."

"Oh. I'm a little surprised there was a lot of information out there about that."

"Actually there wasn't a whole lot of information so it made it a lot tougher to find everything I needed to get my degree. It was well worth it though as I discovered so much about mutations by conducting my own studies. Sorry, I just went full nerd there. This is why I'm not the best company," he blushed hiding his head.

"I actually thought that was very interesting," Reid smiled at that. "Coming up with your own research. You really give yourself no credit do you?"

"Raven always said that was a fault of mine," he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I think you should give yourself a little more credit. You are pretty impressive. Would you like some coffee?"

"S-Sure," he nodded.

"I'll be right back with some then," he smiled softly, and headed out of the office to get the drinks.

"Hey there," Morgan came up. "How are you two doing?" he looking into the glass room where Charles sat at the table looking over the chess board.

"Doing just fine I think."

"You two seem to be getting pretty close," he smiled.

"Yeah. Charles is really nice. Wish we hadn't met under these circumstances, but it is nice that we are talking and getting along. I feel bad that he is stuck with me of all people."

"I doubt he would agree with that. I think you two might be perfect for one another," he laughed softly. "Both of you guys seem to be into the same things and you guys seemed pretty cozy at breakfast," he teased.

"What does that mean?" Reid asked turning a little pink.

"It means I think you two would be perfect for each other."

"M-Morgan. H-He's not into me. He's probably doesn't even like guys either, a-and I'm in charge of protecting him. I think there's a rule against FBI getting together with their case."

"I think the team would just want you happy, and you never denied that you were interested in Charles that way," Morgan laughed softly and went back into the other room where the board was set up.

Reid turned red and busied himself with getting the coffee ready and once the blush had died down, returned to Charles.

"Hey. I saw you and Morgan talking. Any news on Shaw yet?" Charles looked up.

"Oh n-no. I don't think so."

"Oh? What were you guys talking about?" Charles asked.

"Oh nothing important at all. Coffee?" he held out the cup for Charles to take.

"Thank you," he reached out and took the cup. "I have no clue if hearing from Shaw would be a good thing or not…"

"What do you mean?"

"Well if we've heard from him then he's on the move and maybe we can catch him... or maybe he's on the move and I won't be around much longer," he confessed looking down at his mug, cupping it in his hands to keep warm.

"Don't think like that. My team and I are here to protect you. We will do whatever we can to keep you safe," Reid sat down beside him.

"I know you will, but what can we do against certain mutants like a telepath who can keep the minds of her friends safe?"

"We have you to help us with some ideas. You are a genius."

"So are you," he laughed and slowly leaned into him. "Thank you, Spencer, for being here."

A pink tint slowly came to Reid's cheeks, darkening as he remembered his friend's comments when he got coffee. "You're welcome."

Charles put the cup on the table in front of him and slowly took Reid's hand, "I do feel a lot better knowing I have you here," he softly said.

"Ch-Charles," Reid stuttered out. When Charles looked at him, Reid continued, "There's this thing called transference…"

"You think I only like you because you're here to protect me?"

"Well um… maybe… it's possible," Reid looked down.

"How about this?" Charles sat up, letting go of Reid's hand. "After Shaw is gone, how about we go out for dinner. See if the feeling is only because you're my savior," he smiled.

"Wh-What?"

"D-Do you n-not want to go o-out?" the red blush came across Charles's own cheeks.

"N-No. I mean it's not like that! I-I mean a-alright," Reid chuckled softly. "After we close the case here, we can go out for dinner. Hopefully, you'll still like me after this."

"I have a feeling this isn't transference. What if you're only thinking of me in this way because I'm this damsel in distress?" he pouted.

"Then we can have dinner afterwards and make sure the feeling stays," he teased. "Shall we get back to our game while the team works on finding out where Shaw is?" he moved over to his side of the board.

"Sounds good to me," Charles grinned and sat up, taking a sip of his coffee. So the two continued their chess game and talking about various books they had read and shows they watched like Star Trek and Doctor Who.

After a few hours, Hotch invited Charles to join the team in getting some lunch. They decided to go get Chinese, much to Reid's displeasure it seemed. The team got their food and everyone separated their chopsticks, except for one. "Excuse me, can I get a fork?" Reid asked the waiter.

"You're going to use a fork instead of chopsticks?" Charles asked.

"Spence may be a genius, but his coordination apparently doesn't allow him to use chopsticks," JJ laughed softly as she took a bite of her chicken using her chopsticks.

Reid turned pink, "I'm sorry my hands don't like to work," he pouted. "It's like trying to forge for dinner with a pair of number 2 pencils," he whined.

"You know I could teach you," JJ said.

"I think he's a lost cause, JJ," Morgan laughed.

"I doubt that," JJ laughed and showed Reid how to hold the chopsticks and then tried to help him work them to grab the piece of chicken on his table. He failed miserably. She tied the two sticks together with a rubber band, hoping that would work, but still he was failing miserably.

"I really am a lost cause. There's no hope for me," Reid whined seeing the chicken fall and seeing that he couldn't bring the chopsticks together to hold anything. "1.3 billion people stay nourished using these things. I don't understand how."

"Can I uh try something?" Charles asked wiggling his fingers by his temple.

"Uh sure," Reid nodded slowly. He watched as Charles put his index and middle finger to his temple and closed his eyes. Reid then felt his hand maneuver the chopsticks and saw the noodles come up to his lips.

"How did you do that?" JJ asked surprised, but happy to see Reid's hands work the new utensil.

"Telepathy… I can, uh, control people. Make them do things like use basic chopsticks," Charles nervously said, glancing down at his plate.

"That was amazing!" Reid hugged him as they were sitting right next to each other.

Charles turned red, especially noticing how the rest of the team seemed happy, but surprised at the hug from Reid. "It was no big deal. I figured if you felt how your hand and muscles should work it might help you learn how to use chopsticks."

"Thank you. That actually helped a lot," Reid laughed softly and sat back in his own seat.

"Y-You're welcome," Charles nodded slowly, still looking down at his plate.

"You really are amazing," Reid grinned.

"N-Not that much. Y-You didn't find it creepy at all?" Charles asked a little worried.

"No, it was amazing," Reid assured him.

"I would be weirded out by that. Please do not mind control me like that," Morgan said, causing Charles to look down though he nodded to say he would not use his power like that.

Reid shot Morgan a look for that, "Morgan is a jerk sometimes, so don't worry about him," he softly told Charles. "I think everyone else is impressed by you."

"I am impressed to be fair. I just do not want to be controlled," Morgan held up his hands in defense.

"I don't like to use my power like that," Charles quietly uttered, nervously shifting in his seat. "I mainly use it to communicate with people or I could do this thing back in high school where I could link all of my friends and we would have our own private conversation in a crowded room that no one knew about," he smiled a little bit remembering his high school career.

"That actually seems like it would be nice on certain cases," Hotch spoke up from his spot at the table, which made everyone look over to him. "Sometimes our unsub is on the police force or might actually be the police force as a whole. It would be nice to have a private conversation where our team can hear what is going on but no one else."

Charles smiled a bit feeling proud of his mutation, "Seems like it could be helpful. We used to use it in boring classes or when something happened like a bullying issue or other personal issues."

"How would it work?" Gideon asked from beside Hotch. "Do we just talk in our heads like we are talking out loud?"

"Pretty much," Charles nodded, "Uh, here, let me try," he put his fingers to his temple like he had done when controlling Reid. 'Everyone hear this?' he telepathically communicated with the team.

"That is amazing," JJ spoke out loud.

'Like this?' Reid thought.

'Perfect! Just like that,' Charles beamed.

Everyone else spoke in their thoughts to test it out, having a short conversation telepathically. "Sometimes it is a really handy mutation. Though other times it can be a real pain," he rubbed his temple.

"So do people have to speak up like that to get you to hear them mentally?" Emily asked.

"No, I typically hear basically every thought. I hear what people think about this restaurant when they walk in, what they think of their date's attire, how bored they are in the conversation. I just don't really know exactly what is being said unless I focus on listening to that person. Like I explained to Reid before, it is similar to being in a crowded room where everyone is talking but you have to focus on one group to know exactly what they are saying."

"That sounds like a lot. You have to deal with that every day?" JJ asked looking a bit worried for Charles.

"I've gotten used to it. Took me a couple years when I first developed this mutation, but ever since, it has been my life."

"I am so sorry, Charles. That could not have been easy to grow up with."

"It was a little difficult at first… by that I mean it was really painful, but I eventually got used to it. What was problematic was having to make sure I did things right. Tests in school were awful. I had to schedule with the teachers to take the tests before the class and in a private and secluded area so I didn't any answer. And I had to have another staff member proctor the test so they had no clue what the material was covering or what the answers to the tests were."

"Why did you do that?" Emily asked taking a bite of her lunch.

"Come the day where my secret is out, I didn't want anyone protesting my grades because I had an 'unfair advantage'," he air quoted the phrase. "I was a good student so I got As, but if a teacher or other student knew about my mutations I would have to explain how I hadn't used my mutation. This way I had proof that there was no 'cheating'," he air quoted again.

"I'm sorry. That sounds like a lot of work," JJ looked down.

"It's quite alright. It was nice to be done with the test ahead of time and not have anyone tapping their foot or clicking their pens while we took our exams," he offered a small smile and reached over to rub her hand.

JJ smiled up at him softly, "Well that does make it a little bit better even though you lost some study time."

Charles nodded to that, "I suppose every situation has its good points as well as its drawbacks. I didn't have to deal with each person's annoying fidgets during the test, but I did have to lose study time, which is awful during university. Plus now no one can argue with whether or not I earned those grades because there is nothing they can argue about," he smiled. "I don't want to have to protect my grades, but it would be nice to have mutants be accepted in our world, you know?"

"It's completely understandable," JJ nodded to him.

"It's sad how many hoops you have to jump through though because of this one thing you can't control," Reid quietly said.

"I agree. Maybe one day in the near future it won't be as hard on mutants. No matter what there will always be hoops to jump through, but hopefully it won't be quite as terrible for new mutants. Telepaths will always have to be careful in the public eye to make sure their grades are their own, but hopefully we are not having to be kept locked away to keep our minds from taking over the general population."

"Perhaps that could be your new calling. Fighting for mutant rights in Washington. You still are helping your kind, just in a different way than opening up a school. Maybe you can help someone else open a school for mutants. I think it would be amazing for mutants to have a school that understands their own unique needs," Reid told Charles.

"Perhaps that could be an option. I have no clue what the future holds for me anymore," Charles chuckled softly and took a sip of his tea. "Thank you, Spencer."

"Anytime," Reid smiled at him.

"Spence is a genius, so he has a lot of great ideas," JJ smiled at Reid.

"Spence?" Charles asked.

"Short for Spencer."

"That is a really cute nickname," Charles chuckled. "It's very fitting."

"So she gets a compliment for Spence, but I get nothing for Pretty Boy?" Morgan jokingly whined.

"Pretty Boy is also a very fitting name for you," Charles teased Reid. "What other nicknames are you hiding from me?"

"Garcia likes to call him Boy Wonder," Morgan offered.

"You guys are perfect at the nicknames."

"Well the genius makes it easy," Morgan laughed.

"Apparently so."

After a bit of time passed, Charles and Reid finished up their lunch. "You want to head back to the station? We can play some more chess or if you wanted to just read that would be okay too," Reid said.

"We can head back. Either idea sounds just fine to me, Spencer," Charles told him. "Thank you for lunch," he told the rest of the team who were finishing up their meals.

"We'll meet you guys back at the station," Reid told them as he got up from the table.

"Stay safe," Hotch lifted his hand in a wave to the two parting guests.

Reid nodded and walked out with Charles. "That was a nice lunch," Charles smiled up at the other as they stepped out the door and started walking. The station was just a block around the corner from the Chinese place they decided to go to.

"It was," Reid nodded in agreement. "I think the team really liked talking to you."

"Oh really? I felt like such a bore, talking their ears off about mutations and my own magic tricks."

"No, everyone finds the subject to be very interesting. We have never heard of the genetic mutations you have told us about. This case is proving to be quite the learning experience. It's a whole new subject never thought of by the bureau. I don't even know if they know anything about mutants in the world."

"Well I would be happy to educate the team on the fascinating circus freaks," he teased.

"I didn't say that," Reid pouted at him. "Mutants are fascinating. I can see why you studied them besides the fact that you are one."

"Well if you guys ever need help or advice on mutants in the future, I would be happy to help," Charles smiled.

Just then, a loud crackle sounded before something hit Reid in the back of the head. He heard Charles scream in pain before hearing the crackle again and falling to the ground where he lost consciousness.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Reid? Reid?!" a voice shouted close by the Reid. He felt the cold hard ground below him. He slowly sat up and rubbed his head. "Reid? You alright?" he finally registered the voice speaking to him.

"What happened?" he asked tiredly and in pain. He slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry at first and he realized he was outside with Morgan beside him. As his vision focused, he realized the team was surrounding him with worried faces.

"We were going to ask you that," Morgan said. "Can you stand? Any idea where Charles is?"

"Charles?" Reid repeated. "Charles?! He's not here?!" he bolted up. "You guys didn't see him?"

"We came out about ten minutes after you guys and saw you lying on the ground… and we also found something else…" JJ trailed off at the end, looking down to the ground. She almost looked like she didn't want to tell Reid what they found, but then he noticed that she was actually looking at something on the ground. When he looked over, he realized why she had trailed off. Blood. Blood was splattered on the ground by him and it looked pretty fresh.

"Do you remember anything?" Hotch asked Reid.

"Uh," Reid shut his eyes tight trying to think. "I heard this pop sound and then I got hit in the head," he rubbed his head where a bump where growing a bit bigger. "I-I heard Charles scream… Oh God. I was supposed to protect him. He trusted me and I couldn't even help him! He screamed and was in pain and I was knocked unconscious!" he held his head, frustrated by the whole situation. He pulled at his hair a bit and kicked the lamp post close by him. "I was supposed to protect him and I couldn't do anything!"

JJ took his arm, "It's going to be okay, Spence. It'll be okay. We'll find him."

"Garcia, we need you to track Charles's phone and Shaw's and everyone else's phone you can think of," Reid heard Morgan. He looked up and saw Morgan with his phone out and heard Garcia's voice on speaker phone.

She sounded panicked and he could hear the click clack of her typing on her keyboard, "What happened? Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Just work your magic, baby girl," Morgan told her.

"I'm not getting any activity on Shaw's phone or his other associates that we know of," she explained sounded overwhelmed, "And Charles's phone looks to be by a Chinese place."

Emily stood up after looking at the ground, "I think I found Charles's phone," she quietly said.

"Garcia, you have to find Shaw's phone at all costs," Reid sternly spoke, freaking out. "He has to have Charles and he's already starting to hurt him."

"There's not much I can do, Boy Wonder. The phone is turned off. I can't track it at all right now. I haven't been able to since I started having to."

"Try harder, Garcia!" Reid shouted.

"Calm down, Reid," Morgan said. "She's working her magic."

"I can't calm down. We know Shaw tortured Raven and he's going to do worse to Charles. Charles was his end game. He's been the main objective this entire time. We have to find him and save him. I was given one job, Morgan! One! Protect Charles and I let him down. He trusted me and I failed him!"

"You got ambushed. We will find him."

"Dead or alive, Morgan? We have no idea where he is and Shaw has the upper hand in this whole scheme," Reid glared a bit, angry about the whole situation.

"Come on, we have to look for him. Reid, go back to the police station until you have a cooled head," Hotch said.

"I'm going to look for him," Reid protested.

"That's an order, Reid!" Hotch snapped a bit. "Go cool down. You aren't going to be much help when you are this riled up. We will start canvasing the area. Now go," he ordered Reid.

Reid stood there for a bit shocked and angry before he stomped off to the station. He plopped down in a chair and crossed his arms steaming still. He took some breaths and spun around in an office chair. He shut his eyes and remembered his conversations with Charles, hoping to find something useful in them. Unfortunately, it got under his skin as he heard Charles in his head which made him remember that Charles was in danger because Reid wasn't able to protect him like he was supposed to. He groaned and spun to look at the board with the pictures of the crime scenes and victims. His eyes landed on Raven at the Xavier mansion. He then remembered a conversation him and Charles had while at the hotel one night.

" _So how did you and this Sebastian Shaw guy meet?" Reid asked._

" _We met at some social gathering his family was throwing for the lab my parents used to work at. They invited Kurt who dragged Cain and I with. He saw me hanging around Moira and some of my other friends. He struck up a conversation opening with how he knew I was interested in studying genetic mutations. He went on about how it was next stage in human evolution and related humans to Neanderthals. They went extinct when humans came along and that same path awaited the humans themselves as we mutants grew. He called me naïve for thinking that mutants and humans could coexist and I was rather appalled by his behavior and remarks. Before he left that night, he told me about how my 'naïve idealism' would be the death of me… Little did I know he was the one planning to kill me…" he glanced down. "Ever since that night he's despised me and always tried to talk to the mutants I found. Try to convert them to his side of pessimism and talks of war with the humans."_

" _Maybe you are naïve, but there's no need to cause a war with the humans. Humans could eventually start something because sadly they hate what they do not know and fear anything different, but there's no sense in coming out to the human race by being violent first. That won't help matter," Reid sighed softly. "He sounds insane."_

" _Oh he definitely is. That much has always been sure. I should have seen how evil of a man he was… Killing innocent mutants simply because they have a different ideal than yourself," Charles rolled his eyes._

Reid quickly scrambled for his phone, "Garcia, I need you to look up an old address for me. Sebastian Shaw's parents' address? Any information on them?" he asked.

"Um give me just a second. While it's loading, I am so sorry, Reid. I am trying everything I can to track down Shaw and everyone," she obviously sounded bad and hurt.

"It's okay. I know you are. I'm sorry I snapped at you like that. I just was in the middle of meltdown after getting knocked out and losing Charles. I just feel like I failed him," he quietly confessed as he grabbed the keys to the SUV outside.

"It's okay. I understand. I just sent you the address. Looks like Shaw's parents died a quite a few years back. Sebastian Shaw is apparently the owner of the residence even though he doesn't live there… nor does anyone live there anymore it seems. Sebastian has his own place closer to town that he uses for his primary home address and only home address on record."

"Thank you, Garcia," he hopped in the driver's seat and started the car.

"I'll send the information to the rest of the team. I think they are covering some of the other main places of interest, but this probably could be something. Anything significant besides it being abandoned?"

"I gotta go, Garcia. I'll talk to you later," Reid hung up the phone before driving as fast as he could out of the police station and to the address she had given him.

Reid pulled up and hopped out of the car. He quietly shut the door not wanting to draw attention to himself as he unholstered his gun. He quietly headed for the back of the house, gun ready in case anything happened. He snuck into the back of the house and he could hear Shaw screaming. It was muffled a bit by the floor, it sounded like it was coming from downstairs. He heard a crack and a yelp of pain he knew was Charles. Reid slowly moved closer to the basement door.

"Really? You think humans are that worth it? You would stoop so low as to even fall for them?" he heard Shaw's voice a little clearer as he cracked up the door a bit. "I knew you were naïve, but that it completely unacceptable. Being with them? Fallng head over heels for them," he heard a small crackle of fire and heard Charles cry out in pain with that. "You are an abomination. You're scum, ruining everything for mutants," Shaw spat and another crack sounded, a bit different than the crackle of fire a moment ago. Charles screamed out in pain. "I would have just ignored you, had you kept your nose clean and not fraternize with the vile creatures." Another crackle sounded, this one lasting much longer and sounded like two different fires going. Charles cried out in pain, whimpering and Reid could now hear that Charles was literally crying. He heard footsteps, stomping off and then a door shutting from much farther down the basement.

Finally, Reid babystepped into the basement. He saw no sign of Shaw still lingering downstairs, he did however seeing Charles tied up. His head was dropped down, a heavy looking helmet on Charles's head. Reid hurried over to him, "Charles? Charles, it's me," he started to untie Charles.

"Y-You shouldn't be here," Charles mumbled weakly.

"We both shouldn't be here," Reid softly told him helping him up. "What did he do to you?"

"Wh-What didn't he do?" Charles whimpered in pain as he was brought to his feet. "H-He's going to come back," he mumbled.

"Can't you hear his thoughts before he comes back?" Reid asked.

"No," he mumbled, falling into Reid. "The helmet blocks me telepathically."

"Oh," Reid quickly threw the helmet off of Charles's head, "There."

"He still has his own."

"Come on, let's get you out of here," Reid put his arm around Charles, helping him walk, leading him to the exit.

As Reid got Charles up one step, a gunshot sounded and Reid collapsed with a show of pain. "You aren't going anywhere," Shaw growled. "Oh look, it's the pretty little human boy," he mocked looking down at Reid. "Honestly Charles. You choose humans first of all, but you don't even go for good ones."

"Sh-Shut up. Leave him alone," Charles growled a bit, though it came off a little less menacing as he was weak from all his burns and cuts.

"Oh please. After you, I'm going to take care of this vile creature. Or should I take care of him now and make you watch?" Shaw stomped on Charles.

"Back off!" Reid glared at the unsub.

"Alright, I'll start with you," Shaw shrugged and yanked Reid up, throwing him across the room, "You agents should have left this whole thing alone. This does not concern you filthy vile creatures at all," he stomped on Reid's side as he lay on the floor after hitting the wall. He then kicked his head. Reid lay still and Shaw turned his attention back to Charles lying at the foot of the stairs. Charles tried to crawl back, trying to get away from the death glare and menacing murderer. His injuries made him pathetically weak and slow though. "Typical little Charles. Bringing other people into this mess. Look what you did to your little friend," he grabbed Charles by the hair and threw him towards Reid. "Everyone dies because of you. You are a bad luck charm. No wonder your parents wanted nothing to do with you. You are despicable," Shaw threw him across. "Look at just how pathetic you are. You are worthless to our kind," he kicked him repeatedly in the side and gut, harder as Charles curled up into himself.

Suddently, Shaw heard footsteps behind him and saw just in the nick of time, Reid charging at him. The FBI agent threw the helmet off of the murderous unsub. "Reid!" Charles shouted as he saw Shaw shove him hard away from him. Shaw pulled out a gun, only thinking about eliminating the pest before him. He fired a shot at Reid, but instead of the brown haired FBI agent, the bullet hit the brown haired telepath as the mutant had pushed Reid aside.

"Charles!" Reid sat up and put his arms around Charles almost. Charles stopped him before he could by grabbing his own shoulder and putting his injuries hand to his temple. Shaw froze before anything else could have been accomplished by him. "I-I can't hold h-him for l-long," the British accent strained as Charles gritted his teeth.

Reid looked up to see Shaw as still as a statue before registering to pull out his gun. He shot Shaw through the forehead. Charles screamed out in pain before dropping his hand and collapsing just like Shaw's body. The telepath was completely still. Reid hurried to him and checked his protectee's pulse. "We need a medic now!" he screamed into his radio and called his team. "I need a medic now, guys! Now we're at Shaw's parents old place," Reid told them into the phone, freaking out.

"What happened?" Morgan's voice came on the air.

"Shaw tortured Charles badly."

"What about you, Kid? You sound like you are in extreme pain as well," Morgan responded.

"I'll be okay. Charles is the main priority," he said as the medics ran in and started working on Charles's injuries. He glanced over his shoulder to see Charles just lying on the ground completely still as the doctors started administering drugs and dressing his wounds, trying to stop the bleeding.

One medic came over to Reid and started taking care of him, "They've got him. You need to be taken care of too," the medic said as he bandaged the young agent. The team rushed into the room as Charles was put on a stretcher and hurried into the ambulance to be taken to the hospital.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Morgan and JJ dropped down beside Reid.

"I should be just fine. I'm more worried about Charles," he said.

"We'll head to the hospital," Hotch said as he left with majority of the team, "We will meet you there, Reid."

The medic helped Reid into an ambulance too and the team followed him to the hospital where Reid was checked at and Charles was checked into.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Charles woke up to the sound of beeping. He groaned realizing where he was quickly: hospital. He expected that remembering all that happened. He had grown up knowing hospitals too well, knowing how they ran and what to expect: heart monitor, the gown, the smell of medicine and illness in the air. What he was not expecting was the feeling of something in his hand... Scratch that, the feel of someone holding his hand. He slowly opened his eyes to look down at his right hand. As he guessed, a hand was holding his own. He focused a bit more on the person whom owned the hand. He smiled softly realizing who it was: Dr. Spencer Reid of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. "Spence?" He quietly spoke up, squeezing his hand lightly.

"Oh good, you're awake, Mr. Xavier," a nurse came into the room to check on him.

"How long was I out for?" He asked seeing Reid dressed in different clothes than he had seen him in.

"A couple days," she answered. "You had your boyfriend worried sick about you," she placed a hand on Reid's back. Reid was sitting in a chair beside Charles's bed. His head was lying on the bed in the crook of his arm, while the other hand held onto Charles's own. He was fast asleep.

"B-boyfriend?" Charles blushed.

"You two make a very cute couple," the nurse smiled at him. "We'll get you out of here as soon as we run a few more tests. You came in with quite a few wounds," she said, checking where the bandages were. "The burns seem to be healing just fine. They will still be sensitive to heat and itch but they should be healed soon. The cuts are also healing up just nicely. Just make sense to keep them clean and keep the deeper ones dressed. The gunshot wound to your shoulder is the main issue," she slowly peeled away the blooded bandage from it. "It will take some time to heal, but it should be just fine," she nodded redressing it with a new bandage after cleaning it up a little bit.

Charles groaned a bit at the pain. "Are there any pain killers?" He asked.

"Of course, sir," she nodded and administered a dosage of pain medication for Charles.

"Thank you," he said, lying back when the nurse was finished with her tests. "How long has he been here?" He asked raising his hand that Reid held onto. Reid seemed to tighten his grip with the movement.

"Ever since we released him. He's got a gunshot wound to his leg he's gotta take care of. So he's probably been there a day and a half?" she shrugged. "You keep a hold of that one. He'd probably be swept up real quick."

Charles blushed light, "Thank you, nurse," he softly smiled as she left the room to tend to her other patients. He slowly leaned down to kiss the back of Reid's hand, "you are a sweetheart, Spencer Reid." Reid stirred a bit at that but remained asleep.

Charles grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels before deciding to watch the episode of Doctor Who that was on. As the theme song started, Charles felt Reid stir beside him, "what time is it?" Reid mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Probably around eleven," Charles answered trying to find a clock to verify the time.

"Charles?" Reid sat up right quickly.

"Good morning," he smiled sweetly. "Did you really wake up because you heard Doctor Who?" He teased pointing to the TV with the remote.

The FBI agent turned red realizing he probably had, "S-Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I'll just have to remember that if the roles here ever get reversed."

"The roles?" Brown eyes turned confused, still with the trace of sleepiness to them.

"Where you're passed out in a hospital bed for a couple days."

"Let's not make it a habit," Reid laughed. "I'm glad you're awake finally," he squeezed his hand.

"I'm glad I woke up to this," Charles gave a squeeze back. "It's nice seeing a happy familiar face when waking up at the hospital."

Reid looked confused as to why Charles would feel the need to say such a statement but decided to leave it at that for now, "so how bad is it?" He asked, nodding his head to the larger bandage on Charles's shoulder.

"Not too bad. Just need to keep things cleaned. How's your leg?" He asked, his blue eyes turning a little guilty.

"Hey now. This isn't your fault, Charles," Reid brought his other hand to the telepath's cheek.

"Sorry, just hard not to blame myself. You heard Shaw... Everything that has happened to everyone (you, Raven, Alex) is because of me. Hard not to hate yourself," his bangs dropped in front of his eyes.

"Sebastian Shaw did all of those horrible things. You didn't do anything," he rubbed small circles against Charles's cheek, comforting him. "You're much too beautiful to be loathing in self-hatred."

Charles blushed, not expecting those words at all, "You're still flirting with me?"

Reid laughed softly, "Maybe?"

The other laughed softly, "Well I would love to go out on our date we talked about. When do you guys leave?"

"Probably soon," the agent sighed looking down. "We hardly stick around too long after our case is closed."

"Then we should meet probably soon," he chuckled softly.

"Sounds like a grand idea," Reid kissed the back of Charles's hand.

"How about as soon as I get released?"

"How about the night you get released. I can take you out to dinner?"

"Alright. Then I can get the smell of hospital off of me."

"You smell perfect. Now come on, the Tenth Doctor is on," he teased looking at the TV.

"So rule of the relationship is no talking when David Tennant's Doctor is on?" Charles laid back on the bed.

"Exactly. Now you're catching on," Reid teased, ruffling Charles's hair playfully.

"Rule two then is no touching my hair," Charles joked, swatting Reid's hand away before much damage could be caused.

"Fair enough," Reid settled into the chair and watched the episode.

After some time, a knock rapped at the door.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

A knock rapped at the hospital door, surprising both Reid and Charles. "Do doctors usually knock?" Reid asked out loud.

"No, not usually. Come in!" Charles called to the door.

The knob twisted and in walked the leader of the Behavioral analysis unit Reid was a part of, "hello, Charles," he greeted and then saw Reid in the chair beside the hospitalized man, "oh, Reid. I didn't know you'd be here."

Reid turned a little bit red which turned dark as he realized his hand was still attached to Charles's. He quickly retracted his hand, "oh uh yes. I was the one responsible for protecting him. I wanted to make sure he was okay."

"How are you two doing?" Hotch inquired.

"Good thank you. Spencer has to keep the shot cleaned up and bandage it. I should be okay. My injuries are the same to the extent that I have to keep them clean and make sure I dress them often," the telepath answered for both of them. "What brings you to this part of the neighborhood?"

"Well. I talked to the section chief and it turns out that we do not have anyone in the department that understands human genetic mutations. No FBI agent has that training," Hotch sat down in a chair and pulled up to be on the other side of the bed.

"Oh really?" Charles asked surprised.

"Yeah. No one even knew mutants existed. So I had Garcia look up the world's leading expert on genetic mutations," Hotch continued.

"There's a world's leading expert on that?" Charles asked.

"One man has studied them quite a bit. Almost all of his research is what people use to learn about mutants."

"Oh really?" Charles glanced up, scratching his chin, trying to recall who he had learned everything from.

Hotch laughed at that, "It's you, Charles. Garcia found you to be the world's leading expert on human genetic mutation."

"M-me?" Charles asked, taken back.

"You've got quite a few published works on the subject and as far as we can tell, you even created the degree yourself. I think Garcia said that you were the only person to have your doctorate in that field."

Charles turned red learning this information, "R-Really? No one else? I would call myself an expert. There's still so much I myself don't understand about mutations."

"Maybe so, but you are extremely knowledgeable about the subject," Hotch praised. "You also have a bachelor's in psychology correct? And took some criminal justice classes?" He asked.

"Yes?" Charles crooked his eyebrow confused.

"Well. I've come to ask you if you would maybe like to intern for the FBI? We could use a man with your knowledge," Hotch smiled.

Charles turned a little pink, "r-really?" He asked. "An internship?"

"It would be a paid position of course," the leader added, "and it would be with our team."

"Really?" Charles smiled a bit looking over at Reid sitting beside him.

"I'll let you think about it, but I think you would be a perfect addition to our team," Hotch said. "Heal up," he patted his arm gently.

"Thank you, Sir," The telepath smiled.

With that, Hotch left his youngest agent and his hopefully new intern alone in the hospital together. "That was unexpected," Charles piped up.

"Yeah it was," Reid said.

"I just got a job offer," he laughed thinking about it. "I am confined to the hospital bed and I got an offer to be part of the FBI. That's just ridiculous."

"But it's pretty incredible."

"I would be working with you," Charles beamed, "that would be amazing to see you more often."

"That would be really nice," Reid nodded glancing down a bit.

"What's wrong?" Charles asked, taking Reid's hand again and giving it a small gentle squeeze.

"What? Oh nothing, nothing at all. How are you feeling?" The agent asked changing subjects quickly.

"I'm feeling a little bit better. The pain medication kicked in so I'm not in pain really. At least for now," he shrugged a bit, regretting his decision quickly as pain shot through him.

"He really did do a lot to you," he quietly said squeezing his hand gently.

"Yeah. He really despised me," Charles groaned a bit, "it's weird though... He's actually gone now..." He trailed off.

"Yeah. A lot has changed for you these past few weeks."

"Yeah. So what do you think about my joining the team?"

"What?"

"What would you think if I accepted the intern position? Would you be happy? Angry? Upset?"

"I think it would be a perfect match," he smiled softly. "Like Hotch said, you fit in with the team perfectly. You saw how well you got along with everyone."

"Think I should go for it?"

"I think you would be crazy to say no."

"Meet your new partner then," he beamed proudly.

"Welcome to the team," Reid teased as he stretched out his right hand to shake Charles's.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," he shook his hand with a laugh. "I think we will get along just swell," he teased.

"I think you might be right."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The hospital kept Charles overnight just to make sure the antibiotics were working for his shoulder and other injuries. They also prescribed some pain medication for those moments when the injuries would flare up. Reid knocked at the door the next day. "Good morning," he smiled at Charles who was up out of bed, fixing his jacket.

"Good morning," Charles beamed seeing Reid. "I am finally being discharged," he sounded exasperated like he had been locked away in this room for months.

Reid laughed, "You've only been awake for a day, and you only spent a couple days here before that."

"So? You know how much time I have spent in this hospital over my life time?" when Reid looked confused, Charles continued, "Too much time. I hate being in hospitals."

"Well I'm here to rescue you."

"Oh, my knight in shining armor," he put his hand to his forehead like a lady about to faint in awe.

"More like your FBI agent here to help you get ready to go to Quantico with the rest of the team," the agent laughed, crossing his arms as he leaned against the doorframe.

"More like my FBI agent here to rescue me from this dismal life and take me on many adventures."

"However you want to see it. Ready to go, Princess?" he teased.

Charles rolled his eyes at that, "I prefer prince. You saw my castle upon your arrival," he winked.

"Oh that's what the large building was? I thought it was some mental institution," Reid teased.

"Hey now," he pouted. "That was years ago that that rumor went around town. That was only because no one was allowed near the property and I kept screaming in pain. Telepathy is a nasty mutation to get when young."

"I-I was just joking, sorry," Reid looked down.

"So am I," Charles held out his hand, grabbing the last of his belongings.

"You got everything?" he asked.

"I only had what I had on me when Shaw kidnapped me."

"Oh right. To your home?"

"To the mansion," Charles nodded.

At the mansion, Charles packed a few suitcases. He went over to the study where Reid was sitting in a chair reading one of the books Charles's father had collected. "How's the reading?" Charles asked leaning against the doorframe.

"Hmm? Oh hey. Already done packing?" Reid looked up from the book to Charles.

"Yeah. There's not much to pack yet," he shrugged a bit. When Reid crooked his eyebrow at the telepath, Charles explained, "I don't have a place to stay yet, so I can't bring a lot of these books yet to Quantico."

"Oh."

"You are more than welcomed to bring a couple with you," Charles smiled at him softly.

"Really?" he asked to which the other nodded. "That is amazing!" Reid beamed at him.

Charles laughed softly at that, "Aren't you just adorable?"

"Wh-What?" Reid turned red hearing that comment.

"Aren't you just adorable?" he repeated.

"I'm not that adorable… Hey, Charles?" he looked down.

"What's up?" the telepath looked confused and a little concerned, like he had offended the other. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No, it's just… we're going to be coworkers now…"

"Yeah. Is that not a good thing?" he asked. "We get to spend more time together now," he smiled softly, trying to lighten the mood.

"That's good, but it's just…" Reid quietly uttered, glancing down

"You don't want to be more than friends…" Charles quietly continued for him, hearing Reid's thinking too loud.

"It's just… the FBI has this rule about coworkers fraternizing with one another. They aren't allowed to date one another or anything…" the agent explained.

"No, it makes sense. Better to put the brakes on things now. Nothing happened between us, so don't worry about it," the telepath offered a smile to hide his pain. "Harmless flirting," he waved off any worries.

"I do feel bad, though," he said.

"It's okay, promise," Charles assured him, "I think this will be a great friendship. Nothing else, he nodded. "The team is waiting for us right?" he asked.

"Uh yeah," he quietly uttered as he nodded. "Ready to go?" he asked, getting up.

"Yep, I am all packed, and ready to go," the mutant nodded, and grabbed his suitcases. Reid grabbed one of the cases for him and they headed out.

Charles and Reid got to the airport where the team's plane was. "You guys have a private jet?" the newcomer asked, shocked.

"Don't you?" JJ teased as she waved to them.

"Oh, are we playing the rich boy card?" Charles mocked.

"Maybe," she teased. "When you got it, flaunt it."

"Our line of work requires us to travel all over the country. Much easier and faster to have a jet for that," Morgan informed Charles as he leaned down and grabbed Charles's luggage. "This everything?" he asked a little surprised.

"What, I'm so rich I need a lot of luggage?" he teased.

"I-I didn't mean that," Morgan stuttered out.

Charles laughed, "I know you didn't. Yeah that's everything right now. I don't have a place yet to live when I move down to Quantico, so I can't bring everything I would like yet."

"Everything you would like?"

"Uh, all the books and other collectables," he shrugged.

"Do you want Garcia to look for some places for you while we're flying home?" Morgan asked as they boarded the plane.

"Oh no, that's fine. I don't want to be a bother to her. I'll figure something out," Charles assured them. "Thank you."

"If you are sure," Morgan shrugged and put Charles's luggage into the back of the plane.

Charles nodded and sat down as the rest of the team took their own seats inside the jet. "Everyone here now?" Hotch asked as he appeared in the cabin of the plane.

"Yes, sir," Emily nodded.

Hotch talked to the pilot in the cockpit and then took a seat at the table that sat four. Charles and Reid were sitting apart from one another, awkward about their conversation from the mansion. The plane took off, and Morgan commented on the two young team members after a bit of time passed with them in the air, "You guys get in a fight?" he inquired.

"What?" both of them spoke up.

"When we ate out, you guys were sitting close together and talking nonstop. Now, you guys are sitting apart and haven't talked to each other," he noticed.

"Everything is fine," they both quickly said. "Just uh, reading," Reid held up the book he was reading.

"Uh, just uh looking out the window. It's weird to be leaving Westchester. After finishing school, Raven and I thought we would be staying here for quite some time."

"Oh yeah. You guys were going to do your school," JJ said.

"Yeah. I am happy though to be helping you guys on cases, and interning for your team. I think it will be a nice opportunity," he smiled at the team. "Thank you guys for letting me do this."

"Thank you for helping us out with your knowledge on mutations. It will be helpful in the future. We probably will have a lot mutant cases coming up if the population of mutants is growing," Hotch offered a smile back to Charles.

"You will be a great part of the team. No one else can get Hotch to smile even a tiny bit. I think you have gotten him to smile at least twice," Morgan laughed.

"Ever thought about how you were bad company?" Hotch asked him, shooting him a look, causing the others on the team to laugh.

"This is just the start of a great team I believe," Gideon smiled at the team as he sat at a small table of two in the front of the cabin. He waved Reid over to play a game of chess with him. Reid smiled a bit and went to play the game. It was how the two spent the plane ride home when they were not sleeping.

After a bit of time passed, Charles grew a little tired of looking out the window and turned his attention to his new friends. He saw Morgan leaning back in his seat, listening to his music. Hotch and Emily were making small talk. JJ was reading some romance book it seemed to Charles. Gideon and Reid were interesting to watch as their game continued. He saw the chess pieces spread out across the board. "Checkmate in three," Gideon spoke.

"What? How?" Reid asked.

"He'll move his rook to your pawn, then his bishop will move to E3, and then his queen will move over here, and your king will be trapped," Charles studied the board. "Oh, s-sorry," he quickly said, looking down. He felt like he had intruded and maybe insulted Reid.

"You play?" Gideon asked him.

"Yeah. He and I played a lot of chess at the station," Charles nodded to Reid.

"Maybe you can beat the guy," Reid got up from his chair, offering his seat to Charles.

"Pr-Probably not, if you can't," Charles waved his hand.

"You might be able to considering you'll just read my mind," Gideon smiled in a taunting way.

"I do not use my power like that," Charles pouted. "I just was going to watch you two play," he held up in hands.

"Might be fun to play against a telepath," Gideon smiled. "Come on," he gestured to the seat across from him.

Charles turned a bit pink as he took the spot.

Reid tilted his head seeing this and just shrugged it off, not knowing that the two were having a private telepathic conversation about him.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

((Disclaimer: The case featured in this chapter is from Season 1 Episode 17 of Criminal Minds.))

The plane landed later on and everyone boarded off with their luggage. Morgan helped Charles with one of his suitcases while Charles got the rest of his.

"Welcome to the FBI headquarters," he smiled to Charles who was awestruck by the enormous building towering in front of him. "We'll show you to our floor and office," he laughed seeing the look on the young man's face.

They walked to the elevator and rode up to their floor. They went out and to through the glass doors, "Welcome back everyone. Oh! You must be Professor Charles Xavier! It is a pleasure to meet you!" a cheery young lady greeted the gang and ran up to hug Charles. "You are even more adorable than they told me."

Charles turned a bit pink as he hugged the girl back a bit awkwardly since he had never met this girl. "Uh thank you, my dear?" he nervously and unsurely spoke, not really knowing what he should say.

"Oh my! The accent is so perfect. So British and sexy. That they did get right," she laughed softly, pulling away from the hug.

"This is our technical analyst Penelope Garcia. She means well, but is very much her own person," Morgan introduced this new bubbly, flowery girl to Charles.

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you, my dear. They have spoken quite highly of you, love. Thank you for helping find me and Shaw," he said.

"All the credit of that belongs to our boy wonder over here. He figured out where you would be, I just simply supplied the exact address," she linked her arm with Reid's, pulling him over to her.

"Thank you, Spencer," Charles nodded to him.

"I just listened to what you had said about how you and Shaw met. Figured that might be a good place to look since Shaw's residence and the mansion were dead ends," Reid shrugged modestly.

"Thank you for listening to all my ramblings then," Charles laughed softly.

"You say interesting things," Reid quietly said.

"Oh, hey! I've got something for you," Garcia said and before Charles could ask what or why, she gave him a stack of papers. "These are all the listings around the area for some smaller places to rent or buy. I wasn't sure what your budget was or what size you would like or anything, but I got a variety of listings for you. I also organized them by whether they are to rent or buy, then went in order by size and price and also noted how close it was to here and how to get here from there," she explained her system of the various colored tabs sticking out of the stack.

"Oh wow, uh, thank you so much. S-Sorry to be such a bother to you. I told Morgan I would figure something out when we got here."

"I didn't say anything," Morgan held up his hands in defense.

"Hotch told me that you had accepted the intern position and I started searching for places figuring you would need a new place since you didn't have any property here yet, nor did the Xavier estate. I am more than willing to help out and I am sure Morgan wouldn't mind helping you renovate a place if you needed anything done."

"She is a genius and is right about that. If you find a place that you need to fix up a bit, I will be more than happy to help you out with it," Morgan nodded with a smile.

"Th-Thank you," Charles softly smiled at the pair as he held the papers close. "This is really great and really nice of you guys to do all of this for me."

"Hey, you're now part of the family," Garcia smiled softly. "We're not just a team. We're a family, so we help each other outside of these walls."

"Welcome to the team," Hotch patted his back. "Everyone head home for the night. Tomorrow is a new day," he said. "Charles, come with me," he waved him on as he headed up the stairs into the office that was marked as his. "We have some paperwork to quickly fill out and then we will get you a badge and access into here. We will get everything that you need set up and then show you where your desk will be," he told him before shutting the door to his office when Charles entered.

The next day, Reid entered headquarters and saw Charles curled up in a chair at the desk next to Reid's. "Morning," he greeted and set his messenger bag on his desk. It was then, after a moment of silence, that Reid realized the brunette telepath was asleep in the chair, clutching a few pieces of paper, the stack of house listings in front of him on the desk, and his luggage around him still. Reid laughed a bit seeing that and went up the steps to Hotchner's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in, Reid," Hotch waved him in. "What's going on?" he asked since Reid never usually came into his office like this.

"Did our new intern spend the night here?" he asked, nodding his head to Charles still curled up.

Hotch nodded, "Yeah, he stayed here to look through all the listings. Garcia gave him quite an assortment, so it's going to take him a bit of time to look through each one. I came in this morning and saw him like that. I put on some coffee for him when he does wake up. We'll be starting the briefing soon for our next case soon," he added.

"Alright," Reid nodded and went to the coffee station to get himself a cup. He couldn't help but think about how cute Charles was curled up like that, sleeping. He mentally slapped himself, reminding him that Charles was now part of the behavioral analysis unit he himself belonged to. He could not be thinking of Charles in a cute way because that would lead to him thinking about him romantically. He poured Charles a cup as well and set it on his desk in front of the intern. He then sat down at his own desk to start working on his case report he had to turn in soon.

Charles slowly stirred awake as people come into the office. He could hear their chitchat as well as their multiple thoughts. He jerked a bit forward, realizing where he was. "Oh, God. It's morning already?" he asked and looked around and saw the fresh hot coffee cup in front of him.

"Yeah. Apparently you slept here for the night," Reid spoke up from his desk.

"Oh, it's only my first day here and I already slept in the office for the night," he whined. He dropped the papers he had held onto in his sleep and laid them down in two different piles. "Thank you for the coffee," he said as he took the mug and sipped from it.

"No probably. Hotch made the pot. He wanted to make sure you would have some coffee when you woke up. "So what's with the piles?" he asked, nodding to the piles Charles had just put the papers into.

"One is for the definite nos, the other is for the maybes," he pointed to each pile respectively.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, some of the places are much too big and others are pretty expensive," he explained.

"Is money really an issue for you?" Morgan teased as he came up to the two.

"You know how rich people stay rich?" Charles looked, looking up at Morgan. "We know a good deal. These are way too expensive for what you get," he handed him some of the listings that were outrageous. "High price tags do not mean better quality or better in anyway."

"How many do you have in the maybe pile?" Reid asked curiously.

"Quite a few unfortunately. It will be a little bit until I can actually pick a place. First comes the narrowing down of places in paper form, then comes the actual walk through, and then comes the pro and con list."

"Pretty smart though," Morgan said. "It will be your home for years to come probably. Need to make sure it is a good fit for you."

"Exactly," Charles nodded and sipped on his coffee. "Garcia gave me so many options that it will make it a rather long process. I do greatly appreciate it though."

"So what are you looking at?" he asked.

"Something a little small. Probably a one bedroom, maybe two. It's most likely just going to me as I don't have any family… and I don't have too many friends either…" he quietly said. "I would like something a little modest though so nothing too large square footage wise. Preferably cheaper end because interns do not make too terribly much and there is a limit to my fortune."

"Best of luck with that," Morgan told him and saw Hotch motion the team to come into the conference room, "Looks like we got ourselves a new case."

"It seems terrible to think you guys have a new case pretty much every day," Charles said as he packed up the papers and followed the team up to the conference room.

"There are a lot of active cases unfortunately," JJ said, "And my job requires me to decide which ones we take," she explained. "Three bodies have been found in New York with similar signatures. Each victim was shot and then stabbed in the head," JJ pulled up the crime scene photos on the projector in the conference room as she explained the case.

"He changes weapons in the middle? Why not just shoot them if he already has the gun?" Charles asked looking at the bodies.

"There's something important to the unsub. Maybe he really wants to use the knife, but he first has to weaken his victims by subduing them with a gunshot?" Reid suggested, looking through the folder each team member had been given.

"So our unsub is weak?" Charles asked.

"Likely, but we can't be a hundred percent sure just yet," Hotch piped up.

"The final weapon is probably what he wants to use because for each victim, he broke the handle off just leaving the blade in the victim," JJ informed them.

"Breaking the blade off is common in prison shankings," Morgan explained. "Break the blade off and the other guy can't get the blade out."

"Or it could be a forensic countermeasure," Gideon added. "Without the handle, there's not risk of leaving behind fingerprints for the authorities."

"What about the blindfolds?" Charles asked, writing down quick notes as the group conversed.

"What do you think?" Gideon asked, going into teacher mode for the intern.

Charles nervously bit his lip trying to think of reasons.

Morgan jumped in, "One reason could be that he doesn't know if he actually wants to kill the victim. Maybe he doesn't want them to see his face."

"He subdues his victims with a gunshot though? It's a way to control the victim or to just get the upper hand," Charles nervously spoke. "Why shoot someone if they are blindfolded? Why blindfold them after you have shot them?" he asked.

"That's the question," Hotch offered a small smile to Charles, like a proud teacher. "Something about blindfolding the victim is ritually important to this unsub. We just have to figure out why. We'll figure things out more when we land. Wheels up in twenty," he gathered his case file and left the conference room. Everyone else followed suit.

Charles imitated everyone, but once out of the conference room, every person scattered, so Charles ended up just returning to his desk to get his papers arranged and to finish his cup of coffee Reid had given him earlier. He then went to the bathroom to get ready, realizing he had spent the night here and was still wearing yesterday's clothes.

When Charles came out, he ran into Hotch, "Hey. Ready to go to the jet?" he asked.

"Uh yet?" the intern nodded.

"You remember how to get to the jet?"

"Um, actually not completely," he confessed quietly.

"Come on, let's go," Hotch waved him on and headed out of the glass doors and to the elevator. Charles hurried to keep up with him, dragging along his luggage. "Almost every case we handle requires us to travel. Often, we end up going far enough away to need the jet."

"So in other words, I need to learn how to get to the plane quickly or get left behind?" he teased, as he walked fast to keep up with his superior's strides.

"Pretty much," Hotch laughed softly. As they got outside, he went into the plane and motioned for the telepath to take any seat, "Wherever you would like to sit is fine. No one really sits in the same seat all of the time."

"Really?" he asked. "At the university, even though there were not assigned seats, everyone always seemed to sit in the same seat the entire semester."

"Here is a little different," he shrugged and took a seat at the table of four seats.

Charles sat across the aisle from him in the seats that faced the window next to Hotch.

The rest of the team slowly came aboard the jet and everyone took their seats. Reid sat between Charles and Hotch (next to Hotch). Morgan and JJ also sat at the table, a deck of cards with them as they played poker.

"We have got to do something while we're in New York City," JJ said. "The city that never sleeps," she smiled as Morgan dealt this hand.

"Sounds like fun. I am looking forward to seeing New York," Reid spoke up as he organized his cards around.

"You have never been to New York City?" Morgan asked.

"We never have had a case in the city," Reid defended himself.

"It's an hour plan ride… it's a three hour train ride," Morgan rebuttal.

"Jason, I thought you were going to talk to Reid about taking vacation time," Hotch spoke up, not glancing up from his cards.

"What's vacation time?" Gideon asked as a joke as he continued to read what was in his lap.

"New York is not that impressive. It's very crowded, good to go once, but you can do anything in New York outside of New York like bar hopping," Charles piped up.

"It's not New York though," Morgan countered.

"Exactly the plus side," Charles smiled. "Really, if you want a big city of excitement, look no further than London."

"What about closer," Morgan teased.

"No clue," the intern laughed softly.

"Well after we close up the case, we need to have a night on the town," Morgan laughed. "It'll be fun."

"Alright, I suppose New York would be fun with some friends around," he smiled softly.

"Before you guys go though, we have a case to solve. When we land, Reid and Charles go to the morgue and see if you can find anything between all the victims. Morgan, Prentiss, Gideon, you guys go to the crime scenes and see what you guys can find out. JJ, you and I will go setup at the police station," Hotch told the team their orders.

Charles glanced over to Reid, before looking down at the case file in his hands quickly.

Reid entered the morgue with Reid. "Sometimes the police miss something about the body that might help us out with our profile. Sometimes the apparent cause of death is not the real COD."

"What does that mean?"

"It's a little hard to explain. Just sometimes the cause of death is not obvious. Sometimes they also miss certain things. One time we found a Roman numeral carved into the roof of each victims' mouths, a number corresponding to what number victim they were. That helped us with our profile and thus we found our unsub," Reid explained as he put on gloves. "So… tell me what you see."

Charles walked up to the bodies, following Reid's example of putting gloves on, "Um… well I see three dead bodies."

"Notice anything specific?"

"Um… well the obvious is that none of the victims are alike. One is a girl, two are boys. One is Hispanic, two are white. Ages are different ranges," he said.

"That is a good point. Victimology is not the same."

"There's bound to be something, like how my case was. You guys didn't notice anything similar, but there was a connection."

"Very good point. Maybe Garcia can dig up something?" he shrugged. "What else do you notice?"

"Um… well the gunshot is not consistent. One guy is in the lower left part of his abdomen, and another victim is their lower right. The third victim is higher up on the left side," Charles leaned over the bodies as he examined them closer. "Each victim is stabbed in the right ear… right in the middle."

"Really?" Reid looked over. "What could that mean?"

"I have no idea right now," the intern said.

"The ear is the softest way into the brain," Reid offered.

"Maybe just easy access?" the other shrugged. "Sure way to kill, less of a strain on the unsub?"

"Perhaps. Anything else you notice?"

"Not really," he said before leaning to the head wounded, "Um wait, actually, Spence?" he waved the older guy over and pointed to the part of the blade sticking out of the ear.

Reid pulled it out and examined the piece, "This is flint," he pointed out. "Did you just call me Spence?" he turned his confused face to Charles.

Charles turned pink, "It's easy to say and flows nicely," he mumbled. "So flint? Important how?"

"Let's go meet up with the rest of the team," Reid threw his gloves away and walked out with Charles. "I can't believe you just called me Spence," he teased the new intern, causing said intern to turn pink.

Another victim was discovered. This time, the victim was a pastor at a local church. Shot first, stab wound to the ear into the brain. "How did it go?" Hotch asked seeing the two youngest team members come into the church.

"Charles is proving to be a good asset to the team," Reid smiled softly, causing Charles to turn red. "All victims were shot in various spots, but the stab wounds were consistently in the middle of the ear. Also, he noticed the blade. He's not using just any ordinary knife of metal or anything. He's a knife made from flint."

"What exactly does that mean?" Morgan asked.

"In Egyptian mythology, flint was a symbol for protection and retribution," he explained. "Did you guys find anything?"

"No, not yet."

"We do have a witness," Emily moved over to a lady who was sitting with a police officer and nun. "Hello, ma'am," she softly said. "Can you tell us anything?"

"I didn't see the guy's face. He was wearing a hood. I did notice he was fidgeting, like he was playing a piano or tapping to something," she crooked an eyebrow trying to explain what she noticed. "I thought maybe he was just uncomfortable in this parish."

"What do you mean?" Gideon asked.

"A couple years ago, the pastor was acquitted for molesting young boys here," the head detective spoke up.

"A lot of people stopped coming here after that news traveled," the witness spoke quietly.

Hotch turned away to call Garcia, "Garcia, can you tell me if any of our other victims were ever acquitted for crimes?"

"Give me just a second to pull up our victims. Um looks like the taxi cab driver was a wife beater. He was acquitted since his wife would not testify against her husband. Um, our second victim was a chronic drugs user… Um, it appears she was tried after giving her boyfriend a lethal dose of the drug. Can we go three for three? Yahtzee, our first victim was acquitted after vehicle manslaughter."

"Thank you, Garcia," Hotch hung up, coming back to join the team. "Turns out that's the common thread between all of our victims. They were all acquitted for a crime."

"So our unsub sees himself as a vigilante," Gideon said.

"Hey, Spence. C-Can I just call you that?" Charles caught himself using JJ's nickname for Reid again.

"Go ahead," Reid laughed softly.

"Um, remember how I told you I had no clue why the ear was so important?" he asked to which the older FBI agent nodded. "What if it's kind of a symbol for the fact that their crimes fell on deaf ears?" he asked. "In each victim, our unsub stabbed right through the ear where he would have severed the ear drum making the person deaf."

"That's incredible," Reid smiled, proud of Charles. "Our unsub is either a victim or a crime where the criminal was acquitted, or he is very close to someone who was."

"That also could explain the blindfold," Hotch spoke. "Lady Justice is depicted with a blindfold on. Perhaps our unsub sees this as justice."

"There is a possibility that our unsub might work in the criminal justice system," Emily added. "Someone who might not be appreciated and is overworked.

"That is highly likely," Hotch sighed, and everyone nodded.

"In this line of work, it's enough to drive anyone crazy. You see many creeps walk away free from crimes they committed," Morgan shrugged.

"Sometimes the criminal justice system fails miserably…" Charles mumbled, hugging himself.

"We need to deliver the profile to your force," Gideon told the head of the police force.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After the profile was delivered to the police, the FBI team went out to lunch. "You left a hole in the profile," Hotch told Gideon as they ate at the Italian restaurant, at one large round table.

"What's the hole?" JJ asked as she passed the breadsticks to Gideon.

"Why don't you tell us," Gideon turned to Charles who had just nibbled on a bite of pasta. He looked up startled. "I left out something in the profile. Notice what it was?"

"Um… was it that you left off an occupation?" he asked.

"Which occupation?"

"Police officer themselves," he nibbled on his lower lip being quizzed.

"Ten points to Gryffindor," Morgan teased. "Now, five more points if you can tell us why he would have left them off."

"Uh well… one things you guys mentioned for why I would be a good asset with my mutation was that sometimes the unsub is a guy on the inside. A police officer… or the police force. You, uh, don't want to let them think you are onto them?" he nervously said, still nibbling on his lip.

"Exactly so. The last thing you want to do is accuse the police of being murderers," Morgan nodded. "Didn't anyone ever tell you to eat your food not your lip?" he teased, causing Charles to turn pink. "For that, I only give four points to Gryffindor."

"Actually, Ravenclaw," Reid spoke up from between JJ and Charles, earning him a questioning look. "If Charles was at Hogwarts, he'd most likely be in Ravenclaw," he explained. "He is a genius and shows the signs of being a student wanting to learn everything and anything."

Charles remained pink as he dropped his head and focused on eating his food.

"So the police could be easy to see. They are definitely overworked and underappreciated. They are criticized for every move they make," Morgan said as he took a bit of his own pasta. "Often when a vigilante comes up they sometimes refer to them as a public service."

"Why?"

"Vigilantes do not have to follow the rules of the law. They do not need search warrants or need to await a trail for their criminal. They can take care of the criminal right there and then."

"I suppose that would be nice when you know someone actually is guilty," the newcomer nodded with a small shrug.

"It is easy to see why people would sympathize with the vigilante and not want them caught," he nodded.

"Isn't that why superheroes are so popular? They take care of crime and always get the bad guy," Charles added.

"Probably. Plus, they get to wear caps and have special powers," Hotch agreed.

"Can we get the little cutie here a cape to wear?" Morgan teased Charles, ruffling his hair.

"Don't touch my hair," Charles whined like a little kid. "I am not going to wear a cape," he also added.

"Aww, but why?" Morgan playfully whined.

"Have you never seen _The Incredibles_?" the telepath asked. "Capes are deadly. You want your new little intern to die for your amusement?"

The older agent laughed, "Fine, we won't make you wear a cape, but you need a code name."

"Back in high school, Raven and my other friends decided to give us all nicknames. Some were pretty clever like Raven was Mystique since she could transform into anyone. One girl was named Angel for her wings, though to me they look more like a dragonfly's wings than an angel's feathery wings. Others were basic to their powers like Hank was Beast. Without his serum he turned into a large blue furry beast. Total sweetheart though."

"What about yours?" JJ asked, as everyone leaned in a bit to hear Charles confess his secret name.

"Mine was the lamest nickname ever," he waved them off.

"Mind-o-controllo?" Morgan teased. "TelepathicMelody?"

"Those are just terrible names, especially that last one" Charles shook his head at them all. "No, mine was just completely lame."

"Well now you have to tell us," JJ laughed. "You opened yourself up for this conversation. Now we have to know."

He sighed, "You guys cannot laugh though…" he looked around the table and everyone nodded. "Professor X…" he mumbled.

"Professor X?" Morgan asked. "You have Mystique, Angel, Beast, and then Professor X?"

"I told you it was completely lame."

"What? Did they just think you should stay off the field?"

"You know… that was probably it actually. I was not really the person who was going to go out into the field. I would help them figure out who they needed to apprehend, but I was not going to be the one chasing them down," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Or so we thought."

"Look at Professor X now though. Joined the FBI, helping them solve crimes and catch the bad guys," Morgan patted his shoulder. "We can get you trained up and carry a gun. Technically you do not have to have one, but ask Reid how he felt without his."

"You didn't need a gun?" Charles looked over to him.

"I am not required to know how to use a gun," Reid nodded to him. "I felt like it would be better for me to have one though. I look like a teacher's assistant without one."

"Took him forever to actually learn how to use it and actually hit something," Hotch sighed.

"You had to train him?" Charles laughed softly thinking of Hotch standing over Reid with a gun ready to fire. "Well thank you for that. He saved my life by having a gun," he smiled to the genius beside him.

"Thank Hotch for not giving up on me," Reid sheepishly spoke.

"I'd be more than happy to setup some time to teach you," Hotch nodded to Charles.

"That would probably be great," the telepath nodded. "Thank you, Sir."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The team was at the police station examining the board and discussing how they had a new victim, a person who had killed a cop. The reason the cop killer was acquitted was because the only witness to the crime was shot several times outside of their home. "This guy really is getting high profiled and more serious crimes," Charles noted as he sat on one of the desks at the station.

"He's gaining confidence," Gideon answered.

"One of our undercover agents was just killed," the head of the police department announced to the team of outsiders. "Shot in the park."

"What?" Hotch asked. "How do we know it's the same unsub?"

"Our guys heard the shot and the murderer ran away," she said.

"Excuse me?" a voice sounded, "I think you might be looking for me," a man in a hoodie with blood on his cheek as well as hands entered the station with a gun in his bloodied hand. Every agent and officer pulled out their gun and trained it on the newcomer. Reid jumped up and pushed Charles behind him to protect him if the criminal decided to shoot.

"Lower your weapon now!" an officer ordered the man.

"I did this for you. Don't you see? We're in this together," the guy lowered his gun and slowly laid on the ground to be handcuffed and led into an interrogation room.,

"That is not our unsub," Charles whispered to Reid from behind him.

"How do you know?" the agent asked.

"I am a telepath," he reminded the older agent. "The guy is only thinking about taking credit and being glorified," he sighed.

"Gideon will be interrogating this guy. Come on," he holstered his gun and led Charles to the room that looked into the interrogation room where Gideon sat across from the new man and the head detective stood beside Gideon. "The guy has confessed to all of the murders. Why turn himself in?" JJ asked.

"If it was our guy, maybe killing an innocent undercover cop could have messed with his sense of justice," Reid shrugged.

"You don't think it's our guy?" JJ asked looking back at Reid and Charles.

"This guy is just taking credit. He wants to be glorified," Charles spoke. "That is all he thought of when he announced to us that we might be looking for him."

"What can you tell us about this guy?" Gideon's voice sounded from the room. He showed the new criminal a picture of the cab driver. "He was a thug. A wife beater. He got what he deserved," the criminal spoke.

"What about the pastor?" he asked.

"He preyed on young weak boys."

"Is that why you stabbed him in the groin?"

"It's what he deserved."

"Thank you," Gideon got up and left the interrogation room to talk to the rest of his team. "He killed the undercover cop but none of the others."

"Think you could get ahold of the reporter who has been praising our unsub?" Hotch asked JJ. "Have him write something about how the vigilante caused this to happen?"

"Might be worth a try," she said with a small shrug and eft the room to go talk to the reporter.

"So we are back to square one?" Charles asked.

"We will keep digging for something," Morgan answered. "I'm going to go see if I can find anything out with their case files."

"Alright," Hotch nodded to him as Morgan left.

While Morgan went to search for the case files, Charles, Reid, Hotchner, and Gideon went to the courthouse to deliver the profile to some of the high positions there. A worker who was quiet and undervalued. He kept his head down and did his job. He expressed support for the vigilante but would never bring the topic up. He may have been in a case where the accused was acquitted or he may be close to someone who was.

"Unfortunately, if I am to be honest with you, that would be pretty much everybody who works in this building and system," one of the workers informed them. "You see a lot of people walk who should never see the light of day again. You see rape victims who are blamed for the crime committed against them and see the criminal walk away freely," he sighed softly.

"Thank you for your time," Hotch nodded. Just then his phone started to ring, "Hotch."

"Hotch, I am not finding any of our trials in here. Apparently the court stenographer is three to six months behind their notes," Morgan voice sounded.

"Thank you. That means our unsub had to be in each trial," Hotch said so that the others with him could hear him.

"The lady at the church said our guy was fidgeting with his fingers, like he was playing a piano," Charles remarked.

"He was typing. He's a stenographer," Hotchner answered as he dialed Garcia's number. "Garcia, I need you to look up the stenographer for all of our victims' cases."

"Give me just one second. Uh, looks like it was the same guy for each one. I've sent you guys his work address as well as his home address," she said.

"Thank you," he replied. "We've got our guy," he told the others as he hung up. He went into the courtroom with Reid where their unsub, Doyle, usually sat in. One man stopped them before they could get too far in. "Is that Doyle?" he asked nodding his head to the stenographer typing away as the trial progressed in the courtroom.

"No, Doyle called in today," the other replied.

"Give this to the judge. We need a warrant," the unit chief gave the bailiff a few things.

Seeing as the work place was a bust, the team headed to Doyle's residence. "Marvin Doyle. FBI open up!" Hotch called in as the team (minus the new intern) stood outside of the door, guns drawn and ready in case of any resistance.

When no reply came, they barged into the apartment. Hotch marched in first and headed into one of the rooms, "Clear!" he called out.

The rest of the team split up into the other rooms of the apartment, "Clear!" they reported.

Gideon walked up to the window which was blocked by foam and aluminum foil and duct tape. "He was trying to get the voices out. It's like you said when we were watching the cop's funeral and you couldn't get the sound out of your head," he looked over at the detective. "He couldn't stop hearing the pleas of the victims and the criminals who were acquitted."

"Guys come in here," Morgan called from one of the rooms in the apartment. The FBI team came in, including Charles who was fetched when the apartment was found to be cleared. "Here's his stenography machine. The buttons are worn."

"He tried to get the voices out of his head, but the machine wouldn't keep up," Gideon said.

"Doyle knew we were coming. He's already hunting for his next victim," Hotch said.

"Everyone grab a case file and start looking for something. Look for cases where the accused was acquitted. These people claim to be victims in their own way," Gideon handed some agents a box full of papers from the trials.

"What was the case that triggered our unsub?" Charles asked as he started looking through his box he was given.

"His parents were murdered and the guy walked free," Hotch answered.

"Guys, I think I found something," Reid piped up. "A teenager who killed his parents and claimed he was acting in self-defense after years of suffering abuse from them."

"His parents were taken from him and here's this kid who killed his own parents," Hotch said. "Come on, let's head over there," he got up.

As they headed to the home address of the teen's new address, Gideon called the phone number. "Is this Ted Elmer?"

"This is his wife. Can I take a message?" a woman's voice answered the phone.

"Ma'am, this is Jason Gideon with the FBI," Gideon said.

"Oh he just came in. Ted, it's the FBI," she could be heard a bit away from the phone, as though she pulled the phone away from her mouth. Suddenly, a gunshot sounded on the phone.

"Mrs. Elmer? Mrs. Elmer!" Gideon called out.

The SUV sped faster as the team headed to the Elmer residence. The team piled out of the vehicle. The detective stood with a walkie-talkie. "I have snipers trained on the guy. If they have a clear shot, they have my order to shoot.

"We can try talking to him," Gideon said as Reid gave him an FBI bullet-proof vest.

"I'm going to go with you," Hotch said. "Charles, you come too," he said.

"M-Me?" Charles asked pointing to himself as Reid showed him how to put the vest on.

"You have experience with voices in your head. Maybe you could help," the unit chief shrugged.

"I have experience with telepathy… this guy is not a mutant," Charles rebuttal.

"Still. Just stay behind me, I'll keep you safe."

Charles nervously looked at Reid and bit his lip. He slowly entered with Gideon and Hotch. They headed up to the apartment.

"Tell the truth!" the agents heard the unsub growl a bit.

"Doyle, I'm Jason Gideon with the FBI," Gideon slowly entered with the other two. "You think he will make the voices stop?"

"They always lie," Doyle looked up, holding both the gun and knife to Ted Elmer, a young African-American man.

"We're the FBI, we will get him to talk. We'll get the truth," Gideon told him. "I'm going to put my gun away," he said as he slowly put his gun away in its holster. "Tell him the truth. Tell him how you lied on the stand," he growled.

"They did hurt me," Ted Elmer weakly said, bleeding from the gunshot he had suffered from before the authorities had shown up.

"Don't listen to them," Gideon told the unsub.

"If he dies, they'll stop!" Doyle cried out.

Charles curled up behind Hotch, "You think they won't come back?" he asked.

"You think the voices will stop just like that?" Hotch asked, standing a bit more defensively hearing Charles groan a bit, holding his head a bit. "Iowa 1999, a 4H leader killed two boys. He was found guilty only to kill another one shortly afterwards," Hotch said.

"Three white teenagers kill a black teenager and were found innocent just because. Four witnesses saw them, but they were set free just because," Gideon added another story.

Hotch listed off various other people who committed terrible crimes and got away with it.

"It is hard to get the voices to stop, but you can't kill fast enough to keep up with them. There is always a criminal getting away free. Kurt Marko. No one ever heard about him as he never even made it to trial. No one would say another but he continued to walk freely even though he was hurting a young boy. The voices will never stop. Killing though will not bring you peace," Charles spoke up, poking his head out from behind Hotch.

"Give us the gun, Marvin, and we will find you a place to rest," Gideon spoke up, holding a hand up to show he meant no harm.

Doyle dropped Ted Elmer, but kept his hold on the gun. He slowly moved towards Gideon. It was hard to tell whether or not he meant harm or not. At that moment though, there was no way to find out as a shot sounded and blood oozed from the wound Doyle sustained, a kill shot to his chest.

Charles squeaked out, not expecting that, and Ted's wife screamed out in terror. She saw though that her husband was okay. Charles hugged himself, his eyes wide as he looked at where Doyle now was slumped against the wall. Hotch quickly turned to Charles after confirming Doyle was dead and comforted him, "It's okay. You're okay," he softly said.

"H-He's dead," was all Charles could muster out as he stared at Doyle's body.

Hotch blocked his view, "Look at me, Charles. Everything is okay. You are okay," he softly said and comforted him before him and Gideon led Charles out of the apartment. The ambulance came in to get Ted while the coroner went to retrieve Doyle's remains.

"What happened?" Reid asked running over to his teammates he saw them come out.

"Doyle is dead," Hotch informed him.

"Shot right in front of me… there was nothing that could have been done," Charles quietly said.

Reid went over and hugged him, "Sometimes, we try everything to help the unsub, but things can't be helped," he softly said, trying to comfort Charles. Charles just curled into the hug, "Let's go home," Reid softly said.

Charles was curled up by the window on the plane as they headed back to Quantico that night. Hotch came over and held out a cup of tea to Charles. "I brought you some tea," the unit chief offered a small smile, sitting across from his new intern.

"What? Oh, thank you," Charles sat up a little bit in front of his boss.

"You're welcome," Hotch nodded. "If you ever need to talk, I'll be here. It's never easy when a person dies on these cases, even if it is the unsub."

"Do you ever get used to it?" Charles asked, sipping on the tea.

"Not so much. You just have to remind yourself in a case like this that he no longer is terrorizing anyone. There's no telling what he was planning to do in the apartment. He could have easily have shot Gideon, or me, or you. Or he could have turned over his gun and himself… or he could have been about to shoot himself?" Hotch suggested the options. "We just have to think we acted in the best way, so I chose to think that he no longer is going to hurt anyone out there."

"Thank you, Sir," the intern softly said.

"You can call me Hotch," he softly smiled. "Everyone else does."

"Thank you… Hotch," he smiled as he leaned against the window.

"And that invitation is for anything," Hotch added.

"What?"

"If you need to talk about anything at all. My door will be open for you, whether it be about a case or about something on your mind, I will be here for you."

"You're referring to Kurt Marko aren't you?" Charles glanced out the window. "I appreciate the offer. I do not think I will need to talk about him… I have gone through the healing process for that… but thank you. It is appreciated," he softly said, smiling to Hotch and held up his cup of tea.

"Anything you need, I will be here to offer my assistance," the leader nodded to him.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

((The next case will be based on two different episodes: season 3, episode 17 and season 8 episode 15.))

The team had a couple days off as the weekend hit and this was a time they had been promised off. On Monday, Reid got a call as he was heading out of his apartment. "Hello?"

"Hey, Boy Wonder. It's your favorite girl Garcia," came a singsong voice on the other line. "I was wondering if you would do me a little favor."

"What would that little favor entail?" he asked as he locked his door.

"Pick up our little cute new intern. I am not sure if he knows how to get around the city and I worry about him," she told him the errand.

"Has he found a place?" Reid asked, a little surprised if Charles found something so soon.

"I am not completely sure. I'll send you the address his phone is at," she said.

"Why do I have to be the one to do this?" he added the question thinking about why he was being asked instead of Morgan or Hotch or someone.

"Well the address I have for him is closer to you than the rest of the team. Are you two in a fight? Or did anything happen between you two?" she asked concerned.

"What? No. Why would you ask?"

"Well you two seemed really close while you guys were in Westchester, and now you guys don't seem as close."

"We are okay, Garcia. Don't worry about us," he assured her. "I'm going to go see him now. I'll bring him to work softly," he added softly.

And so, the original protector traveled to the address he was given to go check on his old protectee. He thought he was probably in the wrong location as he was now standing in a hotel, but Garcia was hardly ever wrong about these things. He slowly knocked on the door.

The door opened to reveal the small intern of the BAU. "Spence?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes. He obviously had not been awake for long but he was dressed in a new day's outfit.

"It this where you're staying?" Reid asked.

"Temporarily. Buying a home or getting an apartment does take some time," he defended himself a bit, feeling like he was being scrutinized.

"Still," Reid pouted a bit.

"It is a temporary solution right now. Better than being homeless or sleeping at my desk," he shrugged. "So what brings you here? And how did you know I was here?"

"Garcia asked me to make sure you knew how to get to headquarters," he answered. "She's worried since you are still new to the area and it can be complicated getting around. This address is closest to me as opposed to anyone else," he explained why it was him and not someone else. "Garcia tracked your phone to here."

"Oh, thank you. And remind me to thank her as well. I do appreciate this a lot actually," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Ready to go?" Reid asked.

Charles nodded and grabbed his stuff, "I, uh, just have to check out real quick," he said a little sheepishly as he shut the door behind him.

As they rode the subway to their location, Charles leaned back in his seat, his eyes shut.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Reid asked, glancing over to the other male.

"A little bit. I stayed up trying to go through more listings," he yawned.

"Show me what you have and I'll help narrow it down too," he held out his hands for the papers, expecting just a few listings. Charles reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a fairly decent number of listings. "I thought you had narrowed it down more."

"That is narrowed down a lot from what Garcia gave me. She handed me probably over a hundred," Charles sighed softly.

"Alright, fair enough. She did go a little overboard, didn't she?" Reid looked through the stack a bit. "What about this place?" he asked, handing a listing over to Charles.

"Isn't that in a creepy part of the city?" he asked.

Reid looked at the location, "Yeah. Alright, that's a no for that one. What about this property? Looks reasonably priced," he handed him another piece of paper.

"Reasonable because the HOA fees are ridiculous," Charles noted, pointing to the high fee added to the bottom of the page.

"Oh," Reid looked at the price.

"I will figure something out eventually," the young man assured the other. "I just need some rest," he softly said, his eyes shutting again.

"It's probably a good thing Garcia asked me to come," the other laughed softly.

"Why?"

"So we know you will get off in time," he teased. "We still have a little ways to go if you want to try to sleep a bit."

"Thank you," Charles softly said as he hugged himself, moments away from falling asleep.

After a bit of time passed, their stop came up and Reid woke Charles and led him to headquarters.

"I brought Charles here safely," he told Garcia, "You gave him a lot of listings."

"Sorry, I wasn't sure what he would want," she pouted a bit. "He still hasn't picked anything?"

"No, he's still looking through them. He's got it narrowed down to a small stack, but it is still probably double digits."

"Well when he finds something, it'll be perfect," she said optimistically.

"I hope so," Reid nodded. "He's staying at hotels until he can find an actual place."

"Hope he finds something quickly," she quietly added.

Hotch waved the team into the conference room, "We have a serial killer on the loose in Florida," he said. "Last night Nicole Allen went missing from a friend's bachelorette party. Miami police says this is the third abduction from a social gathering. The other two were found dead. Greg is our first victim who was beaten with a blunt object. His face was bashed in as well. Our second victim, Molly, was stripped down and stabbed several times in her genitals," JJ explained to the team.

"The MOs are completely different... How can we be sure we're looking at the same offender?" Charles meekly raised his hand as he asked the question.

"This isn't school. No need to raise your hand," Morgan teased a bit. "Given how close in time frame the abductions are and the nature of where each victim was abducted from, police believe it to be the same one," he explained.

"Nicole's seems to be sexually driven as her genitals were completely mutilated," Emily noted as she looked through the photos of the bodies.

"The unsub killed our first two victims after having them for 12 hours... It might be too late for our third abductee," Morgan quietly added.

"Let's just hope we're wrong and can stop our guy soon," Hotch said. "Reid, Charles I want you guys to go to the coroner. Emily, Morgan, Gideon, I'd like you guys to talk to the families of the victims. JJ and I will setup at the station," Hotch said, closing the conference room discussion and heading out.

They arrived in Florida, and hopped out into the sweltering heat. "Is it always this hot?" Reid asked as he put on his sunglasses.

Just then, two girls walked by in mini-skirts. "Everyday all day," Morgan said checking out the two girls.

"Thats not what I was talking about," Reid sighed a little bit.

"He knows," Charles said beside him, rolling up his own sleeves. "It's Morgan, what do you expect?"

"Hey now," Morgan said just as the detective came up. The detective's appearance caused him to freeze for a moment as his eyes took her appearance in.

"FBI?" She asked. "I'm Detective Lopez," she introduced herself.

"Morgan," he held out his hand, "Derek."

"Does everyone on the team flirt with someone on a case?" Charles leaned over to Reid to ask his question.

"It's Morgan, what do you expect?" Reid turned a bit pink knowing what Charles meant, but deciding to use his answer from earlier.

"I'm JJ, we spoke on the phone," JJ stepped in and shook the detective's hand. "These are agents Prentiss, Gideon, Hotchner... Derek... our new intern Professor Charles Xavier, and Dr. Reid," she pointed to each member who nodded or waved to her.

"I hope there's no test as I am not very good at names," she laughed softly.

"That's alright," Gideon told her. "We were going to send those two on the end, Charles and Reid, down to the morgue. Hotch and JJ were going to setup here, and the rest of us were going to go talk to the family members," he explained to her.

"I'll get you two a guy to lead you to where the bodies are. We have Nicole's friend inside talking to the police right now about the night of the abduction. Molly's parents are inside as well. Greg's family is still traveling here but you can go talk to his roommate and see his apartment," she explained.

Reid and Charles got in a car with a police officer and went to the coroner's. "As you can see, our second victim suffered excessive stab wounds to her genitals," the coroner lifted the sheet covering her body.

"Obviously she made him angry somehow in a sexual way," Charles stated.

"Yeah but what exactly did she do?" Reid added.

"What about the male victim?" Charles asked the coroner.

"He was different. The trauma was to his head and seemed to just be one blow that killed him," the coroner explained.

"What about all of these bruises?" Reid nodded pointing to all of the dark purple patches around the male's back and chest. "Wait, the clothes for our victim here were intact." He said realizing something.

"What?" Charles asked seeing the wheels turn in Reid's head.

"It means that the unsub dressed our male victim postmortem," he explained.

"Which means he showed remorse?" Charles asked wondering if that was the right conclusion.

"And means that the victim was shirtless when he died. Greg was a lot closer to the unsub than we originally thought."

The team met up with each other at the police station. "So our male victim was gay," Prentiss informed the team.

"I think our unsub might also be gay," Charles piped up. "He may have been raised where he was told to be ashamed of his homosexual urges because parents are still jerks to their gay children," he mumbled the last part sourly as he hugged himself a bit. "He may have felt angry and attacked Greg in a rage, and when he realized what happened he felt remorse. He then sought a woman maybe to redeem himself but she didn't do the trick, so he ended up stabbing her several times."

"So our unsub is most likely from a broken home and maybe a much more religious background," Morgan uttered.

"I hate to bring this up... But there have been a lot of conversion camps around the states. Luckily, many are being shut down, but unfortunately they do still exist... And sadly… most of these conversion camps are being shut down because their methods are borderline torture," Reid quietly piped up, glancing over to Charles quickly. "Is it possible that there's a camp near here?" He asked.

"One way to find out," Hotch said and called Garcia.

"Speak and be heard," Garcia greeted the team.

"Are there any conversion camps in the area for homosexual teenagers?" Hotch asked her.

"Um yeah there's apparently one just outside of town call Camp Willing," she read.

"Alright, we'll send a couple there to see what is going on there," Hotch turned to the team members.

"Not me," Charles quickly said. "Sorry, sir, but I am not going to a camp where they believe they can make you straight," he held up his hands.

"Emily and I can go," JJ spoke up.

"Alright, you two go on," Hotch nodded to them, "See what information you can find out."

The two girls nodded and Charles went to the board, "Our unsub is bound to be looking for the next victim," he quietly said.

"We'll keep working to find this guy," Reid assured him, rubbing his back gently. The touch made Charles flinch. "S-sorry," Reid quickly backed off.

"S-sorry," Charles himself apologized. "Just...talking about trying to get the gay out of people is not the best conversation for me.." He glanced down. "We said that Greg was probably close to the unsub? Have we looked through all of his recent contacts or know if he was seeing anyone at the time of his death?" He asked getting back to work.

"I can go talk to the roommate," Reid offered.

"Gideon, why don't you go with him?" Hotch offered. "Garcia is also trying to find out if Greg had called anyone or contacted someone on social networking sites. Charles and I will go see where the two girls were the nights they went missing and see what we can find out. Maybe the place has security cameras and they saw the girls and our unsub leave together?"

And so the two teams split up.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Gideon and Reid drove to the apartment that Greg lived in with his roommate. Gideon knocked on the door gently and the door opened to reveal the college roommate. "Can I help you guys?" he asked.

"Michael Bennet?" Gideon asked. "We're with the FBI, I'm SSA Jason Gideon and this is Dr. Spencer Reid. We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions about your roommate Greg?"

"Oh, uh yeah sure come on in," he opened the door for the two agents to come into the apartment, waving his arm as an invitation for them to come into the room.

"We know that Greg was gay, but he wasn't out to his parents yet," Gideon started off with. "Was he in a relationship that you know of?" he asked as he stepped into the apartment with Reid behind him. Reid started looking through the pictures tacked to the bulletin board on the wall.

"No. His boyfriend and he broke up a few months ago. He was pretty devastated about the whole thing, so he hadn't met anyone just yet when he was murdered…" he trailed off at the end.

"What happened between him and his ex?" Gideon asked softly.

"Dalton was angry that he couldn't meet Greg's parents. When Greg's parents called or came to visit, they had to pretend to just be friends or Dalton couldn't be around. I understand why he was upset. They had been dating for a while and he felt like Greg was ashamed of him.

"It is pretty common for teenagers and young adults to keep their sexuality quiet from their parents, especially if the parents would not be tolerant of their child anymore. A lot of gay men and lesbian women will hide their relationships with their parents simply to keep the peace between them. People in general might hide their relationships out of fear of what might happen," Reid uttered as he came across a picture of Greg holding hands with a guy. "Is this Dalton?" he asked.

"Yeah," Michael nodded to him. "I understand how relationships are, but it is hard when you have been dating for close to a year and the other person still hasn't told those close to them."

"Was Dalton still angry about the way things ended between him and Greg?" Gideon asked.

"I don't think so. I think Dalton moved on and found a new guy to date. He seemed happy the last time I saw him."

"So Dalton wouldn't want to hurt Greg?"

"No, not at all."

"Was Dalton questioning his sexuality ever?" Reid asked.

Michael laughed at that question, "The guy was completely comfortable telling people he was gay. He was pretty flamboyant too. He never thought about women in that way."

"Do you know how his parents felt about him being homosexual?"

"They were very accepting of the fact. I think he said they all knew all along."

"Where was Greg on the night he was abducted?" Reid asked.

"I think he finally went to a new gay club that opened up a month ago. He finally was going to put himself out there again and see what happens…" he trailed off again because of what ended up happening to his friend.

Gideon jotted down the name of the night club into his little notepad he kept with him and he left along with Reid, "Thank you for your time."

Gideon and Reid finished talking to the roommate and returned to the police station. "Greg was at a gay club on the night of his abduction. Apparently he had just gotten out of a long-term relationship a few months before hand. This was his first social outing as a single man for a long time," Gideon informed the team.

"Which club?" Hotch asked as he stood at the board with Charles who was marking something.

"The Bronze," Reid answered.

"That was the last place Molly was seen at," JJ said.

"She wasn't a lesbian though," Prentiss added.

"Sometimes straight friends will go with their gay friends to be a support system for them. Raven used to go with me… more like she dragged me to them, but she was not a lesbian."

"Why'd she drag you there then?" JJ asked.

Charles laughed softly, "She told me I worked too hard and needed a man in my life instead of only books."

"Oh," she turned a little red at the answer.

"Don't worry, love," he told her. "I am bi in case anyone didn't know already. I do lean towards men a bit more," he playfully winked at Morgan.

"Sorry man," Morgan held up his hands. "Hey, at least you have good taste though," he teased with a wink of his own.

"Anyways, perhaps Molly was there for a friend of hers and ended up finding a man she believed to be straight and left with him," he got back on track.

"We probably should check this place out tonight. There's a good chance that our unsub might be there," Hotch said.

"If he is there, what should be looking for?" one of the police officers asked.

"A young man, late twenties to early thirties. He may seem uneasy. His heart wants a man, but his head tells him he has to want a girl. He may seem confused and may just be watching the crowd. He will be there alone though."

Later that night, the team slowly came into the club in pairs. Reid and Morgan walked around with each other observing the other attendees. "So what happened between you and Charles?" Morgan asked.

"What do you mean?" Reid asked confused by the question.

"You two seemed pretty comfortable around each other in Westchester. When we got home though, you two seem a little different," he said.

"I still don't know what you mean."

"Do I have to spell it out?" Morgan asked, receiving the same confused look. "You two seemed to be getting really close while we were working his case. The two of you were flirting with one another. Since he has joined the team though, you guys talk a little bit, but also seem to be trying to fight something."

"I don't know what you mean still, Morgan. You know agents aren't supposed to flirt with clients or coworkers," Reid said, not looking over to the other male.

"No one really cares as long as you are happy. Charles seemed to be making you really happy in Westchester. You guys would sit next to each other and talk a lot. Since we hopped on the plane to go back to Quantico, however, you two have been avoiding each other's eye and avoiding too much conversation. You sit away from each other and try not to talk to one another while we, the rest of the team, are around."

"Nothing happened," Reid answered.

Morgan sighed softly, "Alright. Just know that no one on this team cares really if you two get together or decide not to. We just want you two to be happy."

Reid walked away from him, surveying the crowd. He saw Charles and JJ over at one table with drinks in front of them.

"I really hope we are able to get that place," Charles quietly said as he swirled his club soda in the glass as he talked with JJ.

"We will," JJ softly said as she reached over and rubbed his hand gently.

"I can't believe people actually will send their children away to these bloody camps just because of whom they fall in love with. Why does it have to matter so much about who people love?"

"I have no idea. We will do everything we can to keep this from happening ever again. We will shut them down," she assured him.

He took her hand and gave it a small squeeze, "Thank you," he softly said.

"I am always here for you, Charles," she softly added.

"And I for you," he raised his glass like a toast. Maybe they both didn't have alcoholic drinks, but the rest of the bar didn't know they were FBI. They both took a sip of their drinks.

JJ looked around the room, "Hey, Charles," she nodded over to a guy sitting alone on a higher platform. He was watching the crowd in the bar.

"That might be him," Charles nodded and sipped his drink, watching the other male across the room. Charles kept his eyes on the male while JJ looked around at the rest of the crowd for anyone else who fit the profile. She then saw a guy who came towards the two of them at the table. She nudged Charles and nodded to the guy.

"Hi," the guy waved a bit. "Sorry, I saw you two over here and was wondering if maybe you would like to dance?" the guy asked Charles.

Charles couldn't help but turn a bit pink at the offer, "I'm not much of a dancer."

"I'm sure you're pretty good," the guy smiled softly, offering his hand to Charles. "One dance?"

Charles looked over at JJ, "We're here to have fun," she smiled at him. 'I'll keep an eye on you. I can also get ahold of Hotch and the others,' she thought to him.

"A-Alright," Charles nodded and followed the guy to the dance floor.

Reid and Morgan decided to sit down at a table and got themselves a couple nonalcoholic drinks. "Looks like our new intern has some game," Morgan noticed Charles on the dance floor with a guy.

"What?" Reid asked and turned in his seat to look at Charles smiling at another guy. "Shouldn't we stop them? That could be our unsub!" he quickly said, getting up.

Morgan grabbed his arm, "Come on, sit down. Relax. We'll keep our eyes on him to make sure Charles isn't kidnapped."

"That's what you promised the last time," Reid whined being pulled back into his seat.

"There are cops out front, and we're in here. JJ is supposed to be watching him, we're watching him too. He's a telepath, so he can tell if he's in trouble. He's also pretty smart," he reminded the worried agent.

"Still! This guy could be dangerous!"

"Ooorr," Morgan sang, "You could be jealous."

"What?! Jealous?! Of that guy?!"

The older agent laughed, "Definitely."

Before the conversation could continue, a loud sound erupted, causing the agents to turn their heads to investigate the noise. It seemed one of the patrons was in an altercation with one of the security guards, or maybe the security guard thought this patron was the unsub. Morgan got up to go help the security officer, but Reid stopped him. Reid was looking towards the dance floor where he had just seen Charles dancing with another guy. "Where's Charles?" Reid asked.

"What? He was right over there," Morgan looked to where he had seen the intern. There was no brunette intern there anymore.

"Damn it! Not again!" Reid ran off to the exit to see if he could see where Charles had headed or to see some sort of sign of the mutant or the guy he had even been with. "Charles!" he screamed out.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The team grouped themselves together. "God! I can't believe he's been kidnapped again," Reid paced around.

"We'll find him. JJ, did you happen to catch this guy's name or anything?" Morgan asked her.

"No. He didn't say anything. He just asked Charles to dance and that was it," she answered.

Hotch went up to the owner of the establishment, "Do you have cameras?" he asked and flashed his badge to which the guy nodded. "We are going to need access to them," he told him and dialed a number. "Garcia, Charles was just kidnapped. The club has cameras in it, so we need you to run facial recognition on this guy so we can find him."

"I'm on it sir," she told him over the phone, "It's going to take a little bit of time though, sir."

"Do whatever you can. We have to find this guy as soon as possible."

"I will go as quick as possible. I also am trying to track Charles's phone," she added.

"Any luck with that?" Hotch asked.

"Not yet. It seems to be off," she confessed, "Or maybe something is jamming the signal, but either way I am coming up with zilch. I will let you know when I have something."

"Maybe there's something we can figure out from the camp?" JJ asked trying to think of something, anything really.

"I have a list of names of camp participants," Garcia offered.

"Send them over and we'll look through their photos. Weed out the participants who graduated from the camp. Our guy probably didn't finish for whatever reason. Also send those that in their late twenties to early thirties," Morgan told the computer tech. "JJ, we're going to need you looking through these pictures to find out who our guy is."

JJ nodded, "Let's get back to the station," she left with Morgan.

"We'll canvas the area," Hotch nodded to Gideon and Reid. "We will find him," Hotch assured the worried agent.

"Alive?" Reid asked as he hugged himself.

Hotch frowned and led the two out of the club to walk around. The unsub couldn't have gone too far.

I took a bit of time before JJ found the picture of the unsub and identified him. They got his address and headed over. They barged in with Reid, JJ, and Hotch entering from the front while Morgan, Prentiss, and Gideon went through the back. They split up in the house into pairs. Reid and JJ headed upstairs where they heard a noise coming from the bedroom. They crept closer and Reid heard the familiar cry of pain from Charles, having never stopped hearing it from when Shaw had kidnapped the young intern. He looked over to JJ and nodded to her before they threw open the door and stormed in. "FBI!" he called out as he and JJ trained their guns on the man standing there. The man stood over Charles who was lying on the ground, curled up in pain from an extensive beating. The unsub pointed the gun at his own temple.

"Don't do this!" JJ loudly said. "If you pull that trigger the camp wins. You can still do something about the camp. You can help us close it down for good," she told him. "You can testify and we can shut them down for good."

"I'm just an abomination," the unsub repeated the words he had been fed most of his life.

"No you're not," Reid said softly. "You are not an abomination. You are a victim, and there are others being victimized right now, but you can help them. No one has to suffer the same fate if you put the gun down," he softly said.

Slowly, the unsub dropped the gun. JJ came up to the unsub and handcuffed him, leaving Reid to check on Charles. "Charles?" Reid dropped down beside him. "Charles, come on, look at me," he put Charles's head in his lap.

"S-Spence…" Charles's voice sounded weak.

"I'm right here," he softly said, brushing Charles's bangs out of his face. "We're going to get you out of here. The medics are going to be here soon. You're going to be okay."

Charles nodded a bit, "Thank you. I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry."

At that moment, the medics came upstairs and took Charles down to the awaiting ambulance.

Charles woke up after an hour or so. He groaned sensing where he was for the second time since meeting the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. Also for the second time, he felt the familiar hand of one of the agents from the unit. "Spence?" he looked over and saw Reid sitting in the chair next to the bed.

"Hey, you're awake," Reid smiled softly at the other.

"Yeah. And you're here," he stated the other obvious remark with a small laugh.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"A bit pained, but I'll be okay," he grimaced as he moved a bit to sit up.

"Don't move then," Reid said, "You took quite a beating from the unsub," he informed the patient. "You will be bruised for quite a while."

"Bruises I can live with," Charles assured him.

"I can't live without you…" Reid quietly confessed.

"What?" the mutant froze and looked up at Reid.

"I can't live without you… i-if you still want… w-would you, um, maybe, uh…" he tried finding the right words. "Would you like to go out with me?" he finally blurted out.

"What about the rule?" he asked.

"They don't have to know."

"What?"

"We don't have to tell the FBI about us."

"What about the team. They'll have to know or they will find out," Charles got himself sitting up with a small wince of pain.

"They don't have to know either. We'll act professional at work and when we are off duty, we can do whatever couples do," he blushed at the last comment.

"Much as I would love that, I am not sure how professional I might act with my boyfriend beside me."

"Please, Charles?" he asked.

"Alright, fine," he smiled softly at him. "I would love to go out with you, Spencer Reid."

"I would love to take you out to dinner when we get home, Charles Xavier," he smiled copying the full name thing Charles had just done.

Charles laughed, "That sounds marvelous. So? I can't lean against you on the plane ride home?"

Reid turned red, "I-If you fall asleep, you fall asleep, but I really would rather wait to tell the team. Shouldn't we at least pretend we can act professional around each other while we are working?"

"Alright, fine," he dramatically sighed with a big grin on his face. "When can I get out of here?"

"Soon," Reid promised him before a knock sounded at the door.

"Come in!" Charles called to the door.

The door opened and JJ hurried in and hugged Charles, "I am so sorry, Charles," she said, burying her face in his chest.

"For what?" he asked, wincing a bit initially at the touch, but then relaxing as he hugged her back.

"I took my eyes off of you for a second and the unsub kidnapped you. I am so sorry I wasn't there for you. I'm sorry I failed," she sniffled a bit feeling terrible that he went missing under her watch like that.

"It's okay, love. I'm okay," he assured her, cooing to her softly. "Everything is okay. Don't worry or be sad anymore, my dear," he kept up the little pet names, trying to comfort her. "All is well, love."

"The nurse said you could leave soon, but still. I feel awful," she said.

"You have nothing to feel awful about, my dear friend. Everything is okay," he assured her. "I've had worse bruises before," he confessed. "Don't worry your pretty little head anymore," he ruffled her hair.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked.

"If I say no are you going to continue feeling terrible?" he returned her question with his own. She nodded in response to his. "Then, could you do me one favor?" she nodded again. "Could you get me something to eat and stop feeling so at fault?" he asked her.

"I'll be right back with something," JJ left the room in search of food for the patient.

"This whole team was worried about you. You have only been involved with three of our cases and you have already gotten kidnapped twice," he said.

"Well, you gotta start off with something they'll remember you for," he teased. "They now care for me."

"They would have cared for you if you hadn't decided to be bait for the unsub too," he squeezed his hand softly. "They love you," he told him.

"I love them too," he leaned back against the pillow. "I am really happy Hotch asked me to join the team. I think it was the best move for me," he rubbed his thumb along Reid's.

"Oh!" Reid quickly blurted.

"Wh-What?" Charles turned red.

"Speaking of moving. I was going to ask you something, or offer something if that is the better word choice," he said. Blue eyes just turned confused and worried at Reid. "You still haven't found a place in Quantico have you?" he asked.

"Oh man. I completely forgot to look through that while we have been on this case," he shut his eyes remembering that task.

"Would you like to move in with me?" Reid asked.

The telepath turned dark red, "Wh-What? M-Move in?"

"Y-Yeah," Reid turned red as well. "You can still search for a place, but this way you have a home to live in instead of jumping around hotel rooms."

"Y-You really want me to move in with you?" Charles asked to which the agent nodded in answer. "I-I would love to," he hugged the other. "Thank you so much, Spence!" he sniffled.

"N-No problem," he blushed softly and hugged his new roommate back.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The plane landed in Quantico after a few hours. It was late in the day so the team headed home to get a good night's rest before they would have to return to work the next day. Charles followed Reid out of headquarters as he was now going to live with the agent who had saved his life. The same agent who now just so happened to be his boyfriend. The thought of having a boyfriend was enough to make the new intern turn pink in the cheeks.

"You alright?" Reid asked as they got on the subway to head to his, well their apartment now.

"What? Oh yeah. I'm fine," he assured the other.

"Would you like to get dinner after we get your things in the apartment? It's still a little early," he looked at his watch on his wrist.

"Dinner sounds like a great idea," the telepath smiled softly as he sat on the subway beside Reid with his luggage and Reid's overnight case. He slowly took the other's hand as the subway sped off.

"I know a great place close by," Reid smiled, intertwining their fingers together.

"Let me guess, it's not a Chinese place?" Charles teased to make his boyfriend turn red.

"If you must know, it's not. It's an Italian place actually," he informed the other. "It is really nice there."

"I can't wait to see it," he smiled.

They finally arrived at their stop and Reid led the way to the apartment. "It's on the top floor," he said softly, "Apartment 23," he led the way to the top. He unlocked the door and led him inside. "Welcome home," he said. "Sorry for any mess," he added.

"What mess?" he asked gesturing to the room that was neatly organized. "You saw my room. My room was a mess compared to this." He went over to the walls which were bookcases full of books. "Now I understand why you were very obsessed with the study at the mansion," he did as Reid had done in the study and started looking at all the books and their spine labels.

Reid blushed lightly, "I like books."

"Understatement," Charles teased. "You love books, and that's okay because books are wonderful," he smiled over to him.

The owner of the apartment smiled back at him, "Well here's the living room and the kitchen," he said, "Over there is the bedroom and the bathroom as well. Um that's pretty much the apartment here."

"It's incredible," the new roommate smiled.

"It's nothing really," he sheepishly said.

"No, it's incredible. Feels like a home," he took his hand in his.

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's also very fitting for you. Neat and organized and a ton of books all over the place," he laughed softly. "It's as incredible as you are, Spence," he squeezed his hand.

"You're even more incredible," Reid smiled softly at the telepath standing before him. "I'm going to clear a couple drawers for you if you would like a place to stick your clothes. Then you can unpack and feel more at home here."

Charles turned a little pink. "You don't have to go through that much trouble. I can still look for a place of my own so this isn't permanent," he quickly said to the other.

"You should still feel at home here," the agent said as he headed to his room. "There's no rush to find a place either, so take the time you need to find yourself a good place," he smiled back at his new roommate.

"I-If you're sure…" the other said quietly, shifting a bit in the middle of the room. "One condition though," he added.

"What?"

"You can't sleep on the couch. You have to sleep in your bed if I am taking the drawers."

The older male laughed softly, "Fine. I'll take the bed if you really want. I just want you to feel at home here," he said and went into the one bedroom and started moving his clothes around to give Charles a coupe drawers to use for any clothes he brought over with him.

"Eventually, I will probably need to head to the mansion to get a few more of my things. Would you like to come with me and you can figure out what books you want to bring here to add to the bookshelves?" Charles asked as he unzipped his suitcase.

"I would love to," the other nodded.

After the clothes were moved and the new intern had a couple drawers to fill with his clothes, Reid spoke up, "So how about dinner?" he asked.

"Mind if I clean up and change?" the telepath asked.

"What you're wearing is just fine," Reid softly said.

"But this is going to be our first date," Charles whined playfully. "It'd be nice to wear something a little nicer than this old thing."

Reid blushed being reminded of it being their first actual date, "Alright, you win. You want the bathroom? I'll get ready in the bedroom?" he asked.

"Alright. Let me know when you are ready for me to come out," Charles smiled up at Reid and grabbed some of his clothes he had just put into the drawer.

Reid got changed into something a little more comfortable. He kept trying to straighten his tie which now seemed like an impossible feat. When he gave up on the tie, he started messing with his hair. Everything seemed to be out of place now that he was looking at himself in the mirror in his room. He sighed as he decided to give up because nothing seemed to help.

Charles voice came from the other side of the door, "Y-You good?" he asked also nervous about a date.

"Yeah."

With that confirmation Charles came out of the bathroom. He also seemed as nervous about this dinner as Reid. He fidgeted a bit as he stood before Reid, "You look handsome," the telepath said to the agent.

"You look incredible," Reid replied looking in awe at Charles, turning the mutant a shade of red. He held out his hand to him. "Ready to go?"

Charles nodded and took his hand, "You are amazing," he linked their arms together and leaned into him as they walked out of the apartment.

They walked a couple blocks until they came to an Italian restaurant. "This is it," Reid waved his arm to the building before them.

"It seems really nice here," blue eyes looked around at the building and followed the other inside. "It looks even more amazing inside," he beamed.

The older male went to the podium, "Table for two?" he asked the hostess who led the couple to a table. Reid pulled out Charles's chair for him.

"Why thank you," the younger male smiled softly as he took the seat. Reid pushed his seat in for him. "You know how to treat a man."

Reid laughed at that as the waitress came by and gave them their menus. "Anything I can get you two cuties to drink?"

Charles blushed lightly, "Some tea would be wonderful."

"May I have some water?" the other ordered. The waitress nodded and left to get their drinks. "So you're a tea guy?" he teased the other.

"It's the accent isn't it?" he laughed softly. "I can't help it. I just like tea," he shrugged. "Don't you?"

"I do, but water just sounded better tonight," he shrugged his shoulders thinking about his own choice.

"So tell me about yourself," Charles spoke.

"What do you mean?" the other looked over at the brunette across from him.

"Tell me about yourself. You already know so much about me, and I barely know anything about you except for your name is Spence Reid, you are part of the BAU for the FBI, you are a year older than me, and you are incredibly good looking as well as very sweet," Charles listed off with a small smirk at the end.

The agent turned red at the personal compliments, "That's already a lot to know about a guy," he laughed softly.

"But you know all that and more about me," the mutant pointed out.

"Alright. What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Anything and everything about you," he replied. "Where are you from? What did you want to be before an FBI agent? What got you interested? Do you have any siblings? Can you be any cuter?" he teased the last question with a wink.

"I don't know about cuter because that is your department," he winked back. "Well I am from Las Vegas actually."

"No wonder you are so good at poker!"

Reid laughed and continued answering the questions, "I am not exactly sure what I wanted to be before an FBI agent or what drew me in. Maybe as a kid I wanted to become the Doctor or be the companion for the Doctor," he teased, "Or probably a scientist or mathematician? I guess I always just wanted to help people and I liked statistics and observing people," he shrugged. "And I am an only child actually. My mom always told me she didn't have any more children because why mess with perfection," he laughed as he answered all of the questions that had been posed to him.

"Well your mother is correct that you are perfect," he laughed softly. "Got any hobbies?"

"I uh actually love magic tricks," he answered before the waitress came back with their drinks.

"You two ready to order?" she asked.

"Um go ahead and order," he told Reid, and he quickly glanced through the menu. Reid ordering gave him just the time frame he needed in order to decide on his meal. The waitress left to go get their breadsticks after they finished ordering.

"So magic tricks?" Charles returned to the previous topic at hand. "Like?" the mutant wiggled his fingers by his temples to gesture about his telepathy.

"Not quite that extraordinary," the human laughed softly. "More like little card tricks as well as… Oh it looks like you have something behind your ear," he told Charles. Charles reached behind his ear and pulled out a piece of paper. "Go on, read it." Reid encouraged him with a small laugh.

The younger did as he was told and blushed, "You're beautiful?"

"Well I'll be, a truthful and honest message."

"Aren't you a smooth talker?" the other laughed as well.

"I learned from Morgan. Well how to charm people you are interested in. The magic trick is something I learned myself."

"Well the magic trick is what's working out best," he leaned over and took Reid's hand. That's when the breadsticks arrived. "Thank you, darling," he told the waitress.

As the waitress turned a very light shade of pink, Reid laughed softly, "You sure know how to charm others in front of your date."

"Oh sorry, I just like to be sweet to everyone," Charles turned red as the waitress left. "Raven dragged me around to different parties so I had to try to find a way to make it a little more pleasant for myself, so I learned how to charm those around me. Girls need to be reminded that they are incredible and beautiful," he took a sip of his tea. "Men do too, but they often get creeped out when you say such romantic things to them," he shrugged.

"You're pretty open aren't you?" the profiler noticed.

The blush crept up again to Charles's cheeks, "You mean about being out of the closet?" When the other nodded, Charles shrugged a bit, "I think it's a shame people have to hide who they are in general. I think people should be allowed to run around and love whom they wish and to be able to be free on the streets when it comes to sexual orientation or even just mutations," he shrugged. "So I am pretty open to hopefully encourage others to be open and to help people realize that homosexuals and mutants alike all exist and were nothing to be scared of, at least most of us. It's like males in general or white people. There are bad white males as we have noticed with this job of hunting down serial killers, but not every white male is seen as being a villain. Why do the labels have to insinuate fear or hatred? Why can't it be just a feature to describe people like how I am shorter than you? Or that my accent is British? Or that your eyes are this incredible chocolate color?"

The older male laughed softly with the light pink tint coming back to his cheeks, "You are quite the smooth talker aren't you?" he teased.

"So I have been told," Charles winked.

The two continued to talk throughout their dinner. They stayed for over an hour just talking as they ate their meal. They finally left closer to two hours of being at the restaurant. Charles hugged Reid's arm as they headed to the apartment. "Well this is my apartment," the British accent teased as they stood outside the door.

"It looks pretty nice. Should I say goodbye to you out here?" Reid teased as he reached into his pocket to get the key out.

"You should probably stay a bit. My roommate still hasn't given me a key and I don't know my neighbors," he said. "What if one of them is a serial killer?" he whispered, leaning close to Reid.

"What if your roommate is the serial killer?" he teased.

"Oh my god. You might be right. He was looking at me weirdly tonight. He dressed up so nicely and just kept staring at me," the telepath fake gasped. "You should come inside to make sure he doesn't try to kill me tonight," he curled to Reid as he unlocked the door.

"I'll protect you," the FBI agent assured him. "I'm going to open the door one three. One… Two… Three," he counted and then opened up the door. He slowly snuck into the apartment, "I don't see anyone. No serial killers in here," he reported to Charles.

"My knight in shining armor," he swooned for the FBI hero.

"Sorry, I left the armor in the closet today."

"Fine, my knight in a nice sweater vest and tie," he laughed softly and pulled Reid close with his tie. Both of them turned red seeing how close they were to each other. "Well, um," Charles took the small step back and put his hand on the back of the couch, "Looks like this is my stop," he said.

"Oh, I guess we're here," Reid quietly said and nodded. He glanced down shyly before looking at Charles. "Thank you for going to dinner with me."

"Th-Thank you for paying. Next time it will be my treat," the other said, looking up at Reid, taking his hand.

"I guess if you really have to," he playfully whined a bit.

"I do," Charles laughed softly. "I had a really great time tonight."

"So did I," Reid leaned in a bit, "Perhaps we could do it again?"

"Perhaps we could," the telepath nodded a bit and leaned up. They slowly closed the gap between them, kissing each other softly. It was a short and sweet kiss.

"Goodnight, beautiful," Reid softly said as he pulled away a little bit.

"G-Good night, handsome genius," Charles blushed at the fact that they had just kissed as well as the fact that his date called him beautiful.

Reid went to his room, shutting the door and blushing as he leaned against the door, a grin on his face. He couldn't believe him and Charles had just kissed.

Charles meanwhile, was smiling as well with his own blush. He plopped down on the couch and laid there for a moment replaying the date as well as the kiss in his head.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Reid woke up the next morning in his bed. He rubbed his eyes and headed out to the kitchen in his PJs. He thought the night before had just been a dream. A very good dream, but still just a dream he wished would happen. He realized, though, that he had not been dreaming as he saw the telepathic intern, Charles Xavier, curled up asleep on the couch under a few blankets. Reid could not help but smile at the cute intern. He started the coffee maker because he went back into his room to change clothes. He dressed in his usual nice clothes for a day of working at the FBI profiling serial killers. He came out after messing with his tie and hair again, like he had the night before when preparing for his dinner date with Charles. When he came out of his room, he started to make some breakfast. As the food came closer to being ready to serve, the smell or sound of preparing food woke Charles up from the couch. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What smells so good?" he asked sleepily.

"Breakfast," Reid answered. "It'll be ready in just a moment if you wanted to get dressed," he offered.

"Alright, thank you," the guest nodded and stood up. He stretched and went to kiss Reid's cheek before he headed to the bedroom to grab his clothes and to change in the bathroom.

Reid blushed at the kiss to his cheek and continued to make the pancakes he was working on.

Charles came out after he was dressed in a small panicked hurry. "Did I just kiss your cheek?" he asked with a dark red blush across his face. Apparently only just realizing what he had done when he woke up that morning.

Reid nodded, "Yeah. You did. It was a nice greeting," he blushed as spoke.

"Breakfast smells and looks delicious," he sniffed as he came around to the stove.

"I hope it tastes delicious too," the other said. "I actually have never cooked for anyone else."

"Well, you're a step ahead of me..." when Charles noticed the confused brown orbs looking at him, he explained, "I never have cooked. Most I have done is heated stuff in the microwave."

"What? You have never cooked?"

The answer was a shake of the head no, "Raven liked cooking so I let her cook when we were living together and before she cooked, Mum and Kurt had hired chefs to cook," he nervously fidgeted where he stood.

"Well, we will work on that," he softly said, kissing his temple to show that it was okay. His cheeks were pink from doing that, but he started busying himself with flipping the pancake that was in the pan.

"You want to teach me how to cook?" Charles asked.

"Why not? Could be a fun date idea," he winked as he finished the pancake and put it on top of the stack he had made. "Breakfast is read," he beamed and handed Charles two plates to set the table with. Reid meanwhile put the plate with the stack of pancakes onto the table and then got the syrup out for them.

"I have burnt a lot of things," Charles confessed nervously as he set the two plates down and sat down in one of the chairs.

Reid took his own seat at the table, "Everyone has at some point. It's part of learning how to cook," he smiled sweetly to the other.

"I doubt there is any hope for me, but if you wish to try to teach me then I will accept," he offered his own small smile to his roommate. "Thank you, Spence."

"No problem. Go ahead and help yourself to whatever you would like. Would you like some orange juice, milk, water, coffee?" he asked getting up.

"Um orange juice would be nice right now," he glanced up, watching where Reid went for the cups in the cabinet as well as watching where he grabbed the orange juice carton from in the fridge. Reid poured him a glass and gave it to him before getting himself a cup of coffee. He went out also to get the morning paper which was dropped outside of the apartment door.

Charles just sat and ate his meal thinking about the night before and then thinking about the commute to work. "Hey, Spence?" he spoke up when the agent took the seat across from him at the table.

"Yes?" he looked up from the paper to see the brunette.

"I was wondering… we're going to be going to work together, right?" he shifted a bit in his seat.

"Uh, yeah?" the genius looked confused thinking that the answer was obvious. The roommate probably didn't know how to get to the office from this location exactly and he probably did not know his way around the city quite yet.

"Well, um… you said yesterday at the hospital that you wanted to keep our relationship private from the team? What do you want us telling them when we arrive together? Or when they ask me if I have found a place to live yet… granted this living arrangement is temporary, it still is something they'll read into…" he quietly listed what was on his mind.

"Um, well… um we could, uh, let the team know we're living together until you find a place of your own?" he thought about it. "It makes more sense to room together than to let you live hotel to hotel," he shrugged thinking about the reasoning for why this would make sense to the others. After all, it was the reason why Charles was living with the fellow agent. They just would try to leave out the details of the date. It wasn't like the two were sharing the same bedroom or anything. Charles was on the couch, as per his request, and Reid was sleeping in his own bedroom. There was nothing really wrong with their situation.

"Okay," the telepath nodded. "That's only if they ask or say anything of course," he added like he was assuring the other male.

"We should probably look at leaving soon," the elder glanced at his wristwatch.

"Oh alright," the new employee nodded and finished up his plate. He cleaned off his plate before going to the bathroom to finish his morning routine while Reid finished reading the paper and finished up his own breakfast. "I can clean up while you finish getting ready," Charles offered as he came back out.

"Oh, um thank you," Reid said as he folded up the paper.

"Thank you for the room and board," the shorter fellow offered a smile as he took the plate and washed it off. He packed his to-go bag and left with Reid to head to the office.

"Come on, let's get you to the office so Hotch can teach you how to use a gun," he laughed softly, waving him to the door.

"Should I be scared?" he asked hearing to the elder's side.

"No. It will be good," Reid assured him.

"It would be nice to have something on me so I could be on the field with you guys and to have something to protect myself," he said, hugging himself a bit as they walked out of the apartment complex.

"It will be nice. I worry about you while we are out on a case," Reid wrapped an arm around Charles as they walked in the streets.

"Well I worry about you too," the shorter male leaned into the taller one.

"You are never allowed to be sick and to stay home from work ever," Charles told Reid as they walked to their desks beside each other.

"Aww, why not?" the man asked with a small pout.

"That was a lot of information being inserted into my friend brain," he rubbed his temple.

"What?"

"All the twists and turns to get to the subway and then all the subway changes," Charles pouted setting his bag down. "There's so much to remember. I will get lost without you," he dramatically said.

"I'm sure you will be fine," he assured him.

"What's got the cuties so riled up this morning?" Morgan asked as he came up to the desks seeing Charles with a his pout and hearing his whine.

"He's afraid he will get lost coming here one day," the genius answered.

"I will," the British accent whined in protest and defeat.

"Charles, you ready to get started?" Hotch came up to the intern who nodded to him.

"Gun training today?" Morgan asked to which the unit chief and intern both nodded. "Have fun. Don't scare the kid too badly," he added the last part to the unit chief who frowned with a slight annoyed face as he led Charles down to the target practice range.

"So what are you doing here this early?" Reid asked the older agent as he sat down at his desk and started organizing it for the work he needed to do. It was much earlier in the day than the two usually came to work. Reid had to help Charles figure out how to get to the office so he could maybe find it on his own when he moved into his own place or if Reid couldn't go to work with him. Charles had to get to the office early today so he could get some training with a gun before he would be allowed to carry a gun around and be on the field with a gun. Everything thought it would be a good thing for the intern to have a gun because he had already been kidnapped twice and hospitalized both times.

"I show up early somedays," Morgan defended himself. Reid just gave him a look like 'yeah right'. "I have some case reports to finish up still," he explained his own reason for being early as he sat down at his own desk and started working on said case reports.

As it came close to time when the team needed to be briefed on a case, Charles and Hotchner finally came back into the office. "How did it go?" Reid asked seeing them.

Charles nervously glanced up at Hotch who had his usual stern look on his face. "Go on, tell them," he said almost like he was over today (though the day had just started). Almost like he had after Reid had failed his qualification multiple times.

"I…" the intern nervously shifted his weight as he starred at his feet, "I passed!" he beamed.

"You passed?" Reid asked, beaming a bit.

"Yeah. Hotch trained me on how to use a gun and then I shot the targets," he explained.

"He is a natural shot. He hit the target every single time," Hotch smiled a bit as he nodded approvingly to the new team member. "Great work, Charles," he patted the young male on the back.

"Thank you, Sir," the young male sheepishly said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Keep up the great work," he nodded and headed up to his office to talk with JJ about the new case.

"Congratulations." Reid said.

"Thank you," Charles hugged him. He turned red realizing what he was doing after a second. "S-Sorry!" he pulled away from the hug, "I just got really excited there."

"Come here, I want a hug too," Morgan playfully whined to Charles, who happily gave him a hug as well. "We're proud of you," he ruffled his hair with a wide grin.

"You just love to ruin my hair don't you?" the British accent whined as he tried to fix his hair.

"I'm sorry, it's just too easy to mess with," the elder laughed softly.

"We're ready," Hotch came out to the main lobby area to let the team know. He went into the conference room and the rest of the unit joined him and JJ.

((The case is based on season 2 episode 6 "The Boogeyman".))

"Police just found the body of Nicholas Faye in the woods outside of Ozona, Texas. He was beaten to death just thirteen hours ago. This is the second boy who has been found dead in the town," JJ explained the case to the team as she handed each member a case folder with all the information.

"Any connection between the two victims?" Morgan asked as he glanced through the pictures in the folder.

"Ozona is a very small town, the population is around 2500, and it's surrounded by woods. Almost everyone is connected in some way or another. Everybody knows everybody," she informed them.

"There seems to be no sexual motivation in either killing," Reid noted.

"Is that really a surprising fact?" Charles nervously bit his lip at how Reid said that sentence.

"It's rare when the victims are this young," he answered.

"Killers tend to go after a specific type sometimes like how one serial killer went after women who looked like an ex-wife?" Charles questioned thinking of something else that might explain the targets, "What if this unsub was the target of childhood bullying so he's targeting kids who remind him of his offenders?"

Just then JJ's phone rang and she answered it. "That could be the case here," Reid shrugged a bit to Charles.

"Probably not…" JJ hung up the phone. "An eleven year old girl was just found beaten to death in the woods," she sighed softly, rubbing her forehead.

"The unsub has gained confidence and is likely going to strike again and most likely soon. We need to hurry to Ozona," Hotch told the team, collecting his file and heading out of the conference room. The rest of the team followed suit. Charles and Reid grabbed their to-go bags and headed to the plane together as quickly as they could.

It was decided on the plane that Charles and Hotch would go set up at the station with JJ, Gideon and Reid would go see where the second boy's body was discovered, and Morgan and Prentiss would go to where the girl had just been found.

"This is where the body of Nicholas was dumped," the police officer who escorted Reid and his mentor, Gideon, said as they all ducked under the yellow crime scene tape.

Gideon crouched down where the body had been before. "This isn't a dump site. This is where the murder happened."

"There appears to have been no struggle," the officer said looking around. "Guy must have snuck up on the kids."

"The children trusted this guy," Gideon stood up. "He was able to get them alone and out this far. The children probably wouldn't have gone with a stranger."

"Our unsub must be intelligent and methodical," Reid said, moving his hands a bit. "It's weird though that he would have lured them out like this, but beating them like this seems more chaotic, more of an emotional response."

"He also knew the area very well. He knew he wouldn't be discovered and knew where to take these children where no one would hear them scream and no one would stumble onto them. He probably has lived here his entire life," Gideon told Reid and the police officer. "We should go talk to the children and the parents. Enforce a curfew for the children and talk to them about using the buddy system," he left the crime scene with the others to go back to the station and join the rest of the team before heading to the school. While Gideon and Prentiss addressed the parents, Charles and Reid talked to the children.

"You guys have heard about the unfortunate deaths of some of your classmates. We, the FBI, are working with the police to catch this guy so he doesn't hurt anyone else. One thing that we would like you guys to do is use what we call the buddy system. It means you never go anywhere without your buddy. Bad men and women are more likely to talk to us when we are alone, so always be with a buddy," Charles talked to the kids. "We unfortunately do not know who we are looking for and thus do not have any pictures to share with you guys. It might be someone you know, so just be careful and stay with your buddy."

Reid noticed a shy and timid hand raise, "You have a question for us, hon?" he asked mimicking how he had heard Charles talk to some of the young kids.

"There was a little girl on the news once… who just got grabbed… right outside her home… Is that going to happen to us?" she quickly asked, sounding close to tears since she was so scared.

"Nothing is going to happen to you, sweetie. Nothing will happen to any of you as long as you remember to use the buddy system. We also sadly have to enforce a curfew. Be sure to be home at 5 o'clock," he told them as well.

"Your guidance counselor is here for you guys if you need to talk to anyone. If you guys think you might know something about who we are looking for we will also be around. If an adult has tried to get you alone in the woods, let us know. If you noticed anyone acting strange, let us know. This guy might be someone you kids know, so make sure to stick with your buddy," Reid nodded to the kids before they were dismissed.

At the police station the team gave the profile to the force. "Look for someone who is physically fit. They also probably kind and someone you would trust with your children as he is able to lure these kids deep into the woods. Our unsub might be small as well if they are targeting children. Also, the unsub might be a woman instead of a man, we cannot rule that out just yet," Morgan told the force as the police chief and a woman entered the room.

"My son Matthew is missing," the woman told them. "He was supposed to be at home after school, but he never showed up. The teachers saw him outside in the parking lot and then no one has seen him since," she started breathing heavily, panicking.

"Why don't you take a seat," JJ pulled up a chair for the woman who was far along in her pregnancy. The woman nodded and took a seat in the chair as the officers and half of the team started preparing for a search party. The woman held her young son's hand whom she had come in with, Matthew's little brother. "How old is Matthew?" JJ asked, kneeling in front of the woman, trying to calm her down as well as figure some facts out.

"He just turned eight," the mother answered.

Charles kneeled down as well beside the little brother, "Hey there, what are you thinking about over here?" he softly asked.

The kid squeezed his mom's hand, "Nothing."

"You look a little more upset for someone thinking about nothing," the telepath softly said. "Do you have something you want to tell us? Did your brother make you promise not to say anything to your mom?" he asked. The answer was a slow nod from the little boy. "I promise you, nothing bad will happen if you tell us whatever it is."

"He said he was just going to ring the bell…" the boy finally admitted to the professor. "The bell for the haunted house."

"The haunted house?" Reid asked, standing behind his boyfriend; his boyfriend who was giving the little brother a small piece of chocolate.

"Every small town has one. The creepy older home that is supposedly haunted," the police chief said. "Old man Finnigan is the center of that local legend. Apparently he watches the children and later on attacks them… skins them, cooks them, eats them," he explained the legend to the outsiders.

"Why haven't we been told about this?" Gideon asked.

"It's just a ghost story. It has been told since I was a little kid," the chief explained.

"Fables are often sparked by an ounce of truth," Morgan informed him. "Right now, we need to exhaust every possibility. We need to go there and see if we can find Matthew. Charles, ready to join us on the field?"

Charles froze for a moment not expecting to be requested on the field yet. He had just been issued a gun to use, but he was just given it earlier that day, "Uh yeah I uh guess so," he nervously nibbled his lip as he stood up from where he had been kneeling before the little brother of their missing child.

"I'll be right there with you," Reid offered a small smile to show that there was nothing to be scared of.

"T-Thank you," Charles quietly said, feeling a little better with Reid being by his side

They went to the rumored haunted house, Old Man Finnigan's residence. "You guys take the front, Charles, Reid, we'll canvas the sheds out back," Gideon told them as they moved in on the house. He led the two young agents to the back. Reid went to the door of one shed and Gideon counted to three before Reid flung open the door and Gideon stepped inside. He shone the flashlight on the interior. "Clear," he quietly said before the three moved onto the next little structure out back.

They came into an open structure that resembled a stable of some sort. The three headed in with their flashlights shining and their guns at the ready. They were not sure what they should expect. They were not sure if they would come across the missing child or if they might find their unsub hiding out in the structure. 'Be careful… I sense someone,' Charles thought to Gideon and Reid as they slowly crept in the structure. Charles shone his light and found a young boy's formed curled up in the corner. "Are you Matthew?" he asked as he put the gun away.

The boy slowly nodded, tears streaming down his face, "I-I didn't want him to find me…." He sniffled.

Charles gently pulled him into a hug, "It's okay, you're safe now," he softly told the boy, brushing back his hair. "Let's go get you home, okay?" he asked the eight year old in his arms.

The boy nodded and Charles led him out and to the police cruiser outside. "There's no sign of Mr. Finnigan anywhere," Gideon said to Reid as they finished looking around the property. They met up with Morgan and the police chief in the house where they had found the electricity to be out. "We found Matthew, but we didn't find Mr. Finnigan," Gideon told the other team.

"Maybe he's been away?" the chief asked the FBI.

"This paper was delivered today," Morgan held up the newspaper on the paper nearby. "He's been here… or at least someone has. Question is, where is he now?"

Charles came back into the house after situating Matthew in the police cruiser whose driver took him to his parents. He could just see the outline of Reid by a desk getting up. Morgan was just standing still behind Reid when the genius turned and jumped, letting out a small surprised and scared noise. The genius also dropped the phone he had been using to call Garcia to ask about the house and information on Mr. Finnigan. "You really are afraid of the dark," Morgan laughed at the noise and reaction from Reid.

"I'm working on it," Reid muttered quickly to try to drop the subject, especially when he noticed his boyfriend's frame by the entrance of the home.

"Maybe you should work harder," Morgan teased.

"You're afraid of the dark?" Charles tilted his head a bit surprised by the fear.

The tall skinny agent turned a bit pink at the remark, though no one could see it in the dark. Charles may have been able to feel the heat with the assistance of his mutation.

"Ain't he a little cutie? Still afraid of the dark," Morgan teased his friend, ruffling his hair.

"Sh-Shut up," Reid pulled away.

"Everyone has their fears and that one is pretty common," Charles softly said and took one of Reid's hands. "There is no shame in being afraid of the dark, especially in this line of work. We see what can happen in the dark. It's like the being afraid of the unknown which sadly a lot of people have," he muttered the last part thinking about the actions of humans against mutants simply because they do not understand mutations.

"Are you still afraid of the dark?" Morgan asked.

"Depends on the situation I am in. Like if a murderer could be around me in the dark, I will be terrified, but at night when I am alone in my room trying to sleep, I won't be afraid. I do have an advantage though," he reminded, wiggling his fingers by his temple. "Telepathy allows me o try to reach out to anyone close by so I know if someone is in the dark planning on attacking. There's no bad guys around here," he softly told Reid, moving his hand to the tall brunette's cheek. He gently rubbed the hollow of Reid's cheek before the tall brunette pulled away from how close they were together. 'Sorry!' Charles quickly thought forgetting they weren't supposed to be obviously together out on cases and with the rest of the team.

"What are you afraid of?" Morgan asked curiously.

"Um… Unfulfilled potential?" he said a little nervously. "Or unfulfilled destiny maybe is a better way to phrase it?"

"What do you mean by that?" Morgan asked.

"Like I am scared I am not fulfilling what I need to do in life or that I am not doing what I am supposed to be doing. For the destiny, it's like the fear that I am actually supposed to be opening the school for mutants and helping the next generation of mutants learn how to control their powers and how to feel comfortable in their own skin," he explained.

"That makes sense. I am sure this is your destiny. You can help mutants while you are working with us," he told him. "This way you are working with the government," he added the good part of the job. "Maybe eventually you could do a class for mutants? Or a class teaching agents about mutants and various mutations? Or maybe, you could even lead a team formed by mutants," he smiled at him, rubbing the intern's shoulder as if to encourage him.

"Thank you, Morgan," said intern smiled at the older agents.

"Agents, they just found Old Man Finnigan… He's dad," the chief told the FBI team inside of the home. "From the look of things… he's been dead for a couple days at least," he added.

"Who's been living in the home then?" Charles questioned as he exchanged looked with the rest of the team inside the new victim's home.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The next day when the sun rose, the team was back at the "haunted house. They found trays of food inside the kitchen that had been dated for dates after the home owner had passed away. "Someone clearly has been living here," Gideon noted seeing the pre-prepared food trays.

"The cream spinach is the only thing that has not been touched," Reid picked up one of the containers.

"Who would ever touch that?" Charles stuck out his tongue in disgust. "Is that duct tape?" he asked grabbing the container.

"Apparently someone else has your same outlook on cream spinach," Reid teased.

"Oh please, who honestly would eat cream spinach? It sounds disgusting," he said.

"We will need to get this to the lab to run for fingerprints or DNA," Gideon told one of the officers who bagged the evidence.

"The community delivered meals to the elderly," the police chief informed the agents who were contemplating the presence of the food.

Reid moved on to the living room and started looking through some of the journals that Finnigan had written in. "What are you up to?" Charles leaned on the back of the couch as Reid sat there with a journal in his lap.

"I'm curious about what happened to the man's wife, and I kind of am curious about what sparked the legend of this town," he told him.

"Oh, let me know if you find anything," he patted his shoulder and left to check on something else, leaving the speed reader with the journals. He had continued to read until the young intern returned to his side. "Were you able to find anything?" he asked as he sat beside his boyfriend on the couch.

"Apparently, Finnigan's wife left him. He really would look out his window, but he wasn't watching the children trying to figure out who to hunt. He actually was looking out for his wife, hoping she would return home to him," Reid explained to the other male.

"Oh, that's depressing," Charles pouted hearing that story.

"What do you mean?" the older agent asked, looking confused at Charles.

"She left him and he still continued to wait for her. Hoping she would finally come home after years of being gone. It's kind of depressing to think about that. He was so depressed not to have her in his life anymore."

"Yeah, but it also is a little romantic, isn't it?" the other asked as set the journals down on the coffee table. This question earned him a completely confused look from the blue eyes. "He loved her so much that he never moved on, and he continued to wait for her to come home to him."

"I suppose do, but she didn't deserve him. She just up and left without much of a word to her husband," he mumbled. "I would be angrier about than if I was just left one day by the person who said till death do us part."

"I can understand that," brown eyes looked down.

'I would be completely heartbroken if you just up and left me,' the telepath thought to the human before he left the room.

The team went back to the police station to wait until Garcia had any information on the fingerprints from the food trays. She finally called Morgan after a couple hours, "What you got for us, baby girl?" he asked when he answered the phone.

"There were two sets of finger prints pulled from the food trays you gave me. One belongs to that of a child," she informed them

"Which victim did they belong to?" he asked.

"I'm not sure yet on that one. The other set belong to a James Charles."

"James Charles?" Morgan asked for clarification.

"Yeah. Why?"

"He's the counselor who is working with us on this case," he told her.

Garcia quickly started typing on her computer, "I just sent you guys his home address."

"Thanks, baby girl. Let's get going guys," Morgan hung up with Garcia and headed out with the team.

The FBI waited for the police chief outside of the home of James Charles's home. "Are you sure it's him? Charles?" he asked.

"He works with the children, he's someone who would be trusting, he's also a smaller guy. He wouldn't seem threatening to anyone, but he also is fit," Morgan explained. "He grew up in Ozona so he knows the area and thus the woods."

"Has anything happened to him in the last six months?" Gideon asked.

"His wife left him and his kids," the chief answered, a little upset he had to share that information.

"That's the stressor," Hotch said and looked over as he caught movement coming from the house. "He's on the move!" he told his comrades. "Mr. Charles!" he called out to the man as James Charles went toward his truck.

The counselor noticed the police car and the FBI agents around his front yard, and immediately took off running. The team split up around the house to cut him off from the side. Morgan ran as fast as he could after the counselor. When Hotch and Gideon cut off one escape route for James Charles, Morgan ran up the other side and tackled the new suspect to the ground. "Why you running?!" Morgan shouted down at him. "Give me this!" he yanked the backpack away. He pulled out the red cap, "What's so important about the hat?!"

"It's Nicholas'. He was wearing it on the day he was murdered," Gideon said.

"Come on," Morgan pulled James Charles up and dragged him to the police cruiser. He was going to take him into custody and interrogate him.

"Now comes the part I hate most," JJ mumbled as she leaned against the car door as Charles and Reid came up beside her.

"What's going on?" Charles asked her, a bit concerned.

"Turning Jeffrey to Child Services since his father is going to be going to jail," she answered as she called someone. "This is Agent Jennifer Jareau with the FBI. We're going to be picking up Jeffrey Charles in about twenty minutes," she told the school. "Wait. What?" she asked before heading over to Hotchner who had stayed behind. "Jeffrey Charles didn't go to school today. His dad said he was sick."

"What?" Hotchner asked. He went and called Morgan and sent the other agents and police force to search the home for the son, Jeffrey.

Charles and Reid went in looking around with the rest of the force. They stumbled into the kitchen after a period of time passed. They were looking for anything that may clue them to the whereabouts of the boy. Reid stopped at the table in the kitchen and picked up something.

"What's that?" one of the officers asked.

"It's an EPI pen," he answered.

"You found an EPI pen?" Charles asked as he stood in front of the opened fridge. "I think I might know what the person is allergic too," he pointed out the cartons of dairy products that were sealed with duct tape, just like the cream spinach had been taped at Finnigan's home.

"Guys," Hotch came up to the group, "We have another missing girl who was last seen getting off of her school bus," the unit chief told them.

"That means that James is not our unsub since he was in custody," Charles glanced at his watch. They had taken James out before the school day had even ended.

"There are a lot of things pointing to him though," JJ pointed out.

"No… not just to him. What if Jeffrey isn't the end game… what if he's the unsub?" Charles looked up to the rest of the team.

"We have to go," Hotch said and got into the car, driving off to the bus stop where the missing girl was last seen. "Her name is Tracie Belle," he told them as they hopped out of the car.

"Where would a twelve year old boy go with an eight year old girl? How did he manage to take her out in the open like this?" JJ asked.

"We taught him how. The buddy system. No one will think anything of two kids walking together… by doing that, we just made a target of any buddy of Jeffrey," Charles hugged himself.

"Hey, don't beat yourself over this. No one would have thought of the unsub being a little boy," Reid rubbed his arm.

"Where would he go with Tracie if they didn't head home?" Gideon asked looking around. The unit then saw the smallish park behind them, "The park, surrounded by woods. Split up!" he hurried into the woods. The whole team ran after him and split up running around trying to find a trace of the two kids. They also were listening for a scream or anything to help them find the two kids.

Charles put his finger to his temple trying to sense their whereabouts.

A scream sounded nearby and the team around them hurried over. Jeffrey was tossing a bat, trying to hit Tracie who was crawling away from her attacker. She was screaming out, terrified of the ginger boy with the bat. Gideon ran up, taking the bat from the little boy and grabbed the boy to keep him from doing anything else. Charles rushed over to Tracie and wrapped her in his arms. He softly cooed to her, trying to calm her down a bit as she began to sob. From there, the eleven year old boy was taken into custody while the father was released. Tracie was reunited with her parents when they met her at the station.

The BAU headed home after the long case in Texas. Charles, Morgan, and Reid were sitting at the table. "I cannot believe that you are still afraid of the dark, Reid," Morgan shook his head looking at Reid sitting across from him.

"Will you ever let me live that down?" the genius pouted.

"Nope," Morgan shook his head with a big grin.

"Oh please everyone has some irrational fear," Charles rolled his eyes as he leaned against the plane's window beside him. "Do I need to share yours?" he put his index and middle finger to his temple to remind the other of his mutation and how he could find any dark secret he wanted.

"No thank you," Morgan held up his hands in defeat and went to listen to his music.

"That's what I thought," Charles laughed softly and curled up onto the seat, putting his jacket over himself.

He offered Reid a small smile from his seat. Reid smiled softly back as well, 'Thank you, Charles.

Garcia greeted the team when they landed, "Welcome home," she beamed at them.

"Hey, Baby Girl," Morgan gave her a small hug. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I just was thinking about how we never did a welcoming party for Charles," she said. "It's still a little early night, so how about we get some drinks?" she turned to Charles.

"Um well if anyone wants to go, uh sure," he glanced to Reid.

"Please?" Garcia asked the team. "You guys got to have dinner with him," she pouted at them.

"First rounds on you then," Morgan teased her, agreeing to go with her.

"I'm in if you're buying," JJ laughed and Prentiss nodded in agreement.

"I'll go call Haley," Hotch patted Charles's back before he went into his office to drop off somethings and to call his wife.

"Come on, Boy Wonder. You have to come to. We're dragging you out for a night out as well," Garcia grinned to the genius standing beside the newcomer.

"You have no choice in the matter if I don't either," Charles nudged Reid. 'You're my way home.'

"Fine, I guess I'm going too," Reid laughed.

The BAU went off to a bar that was close by. They went over to sit at one of the bigger tables that was available. "Alright, I know everyone's usual drinks. Charles, what would you like?" Garcia asked as she stood by the table.

"Um scotch would be great," he answered his preferred drink.

"Scotch?" Morgan and Reid both looked a little impressed by the young male's choice of drink.

"What's so wrong about that?" he asked, turning red at the two pair of brown eyes staring at him.

"You just seem more like a fruity drink kind of guy," Morgan teased ruffling his hair.

"Hey, stop," the intern whined swatting his hand away. "I may be gay, but I was raised on scotch," he blushed a little with that. "My dad and step-father both kept scotch around the house. I don't know why, but it's just the drink I go for," he shrugged a bit.

"Nothing wrong with that," Morgan assured him. "Just surprising is all," he shrugged.

"Sorry, I'm not your stereotypical gay gentleman," he laughed.

"Hey, someone has to be the classy man here," Garcia teased as she left to get the drinks.

Charles laughed at that, "Are you drinking the basic beer?" he teased the older man.

"Maybe," Morgan shrugged.

"You know what they say about men who drink beer," the other teased.

"Hey now," he laughed holding up his hands. "Alright, touché," he leaned back in his seat.

Garcia came back after a moment with the round of drinks for everyone, "To having a new member. I see a bright future for this team," she raised her glass as did everyone else in a toast to welcome Charles to the team.

"To having a bright sunshine added to this team," Morgan added. "To Charles," they all drank.

"Thank you," Charles smile softly to the group surrounding him and drank a bit more of his scotch.

The group sat there talking about various things. Garcia turned to Charles after a while, "So where have you been staying?" she asked.

Charles glanced over to Reid, 'Is it okay if I tell them?' he thought to him. The tall agent nodded a bit. "I'm staying at Spencer's apartment till I can find something."

"Oh really?" Garcia asked, smirking a little bit with the juicy gossip she had just received.

The new intern blushed at the way she smirked, "You remember how you sent him to fetch me my first official day of being an intern for you guys?" he waited for a nod. "Well… he didn't think I should be living between hotels, so he thought it would be a good idea to have me live with him while I try to find something for myself."

"Reid, my man," Morgan laughed.

"What?" Reid looked over startled.

"Convincing Charles to move in with you," he teased.

"I-It's not like that!" the scrawny agent quickly said in protest.

"Sure it's not."

"Naughty boy," Garcia teased sipping on her drink.

"It's not!" Reid whined.

"If you wanted to date me, all you had to do was ask," Charles winked, teasing the agent with the other two teammates. This tease from Charles turned the young brunette dark red. The telepath laughed softly, "Seriously though guys. It is not like that. He was just looking out for me. I've already been kidnapped twice. Don't need to make it a third time by hotel hopping."

"Fine," Garcia dramatically sighed.

"I'm sad too. Spence here is exactly my type, tall, handsome, and nerdy," Charles pouted a little bit leaning into Reid with the tease.

"Are you already drunk?" Reid asked.

"No, sorry," he sat up.

"Come on, Charles," Garcia pulled him up. "We'll find you a nice guy," she giggled.

"Wait w-what?" he stuttered out being yanked up and dragged further into the bar. She dragged her far away from the rest of the team.

"Oh that poor boy," Morgan shook his head watching the technical analysis drag the intern off to the bar.

The team spent a good amount of the time inside the bar before they all started to trickle out. Charles and Reid headed to their apartment together. Charles leaned into the taller frame as they walked. "Oh man, she was relentless. I think she approached nearly every guy in the bar trying to find one gay man," he whined a bit to his boyfriend.

"Did she manage to find one?" Reid asked with an arm wrapped around the other.

Charles started laughing, "She did actually. She was trying to push me to him when his very tall, very muscular boyfriend stepped in."

"You okay?" he asked worriedly.

"I am fine, and so is she. She quickly turned me away and we went straight to the bar for another drink."

"How many did you have?"

"Just a couple. I am fine, just a little tired," he told him. "Let's get home," he smiled up at him.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The next day, the team met up at the office. Charles was sitting at his desk looking over how to write a case report for the team. "Hey, sunshine," Garcia came up to the intern. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I grew up with Raven as a sister. She was a party girl and often dragged me around to these parties. I know how to handle my scotch," he laughed softly at her concern.

"Well still," she gave him a bottle of water and smiled at him.

"Thank you, love," he softly said as he took the bottle and drank from it. "That is some great water," he looked at the label amazed by the taste.

The other members in office laughed hearing his reaction. "The little things in life make his day," Morgan laughed at the intern.

"Well in a job full of bad things, you have to appreciate the little things. Right, darling," he looked up at Garcia who was known for having little figures and colors in her office to distract her from the horrific images on her computer screen.

"Very true," she smiled softly at the male.

"We've got a case guys," JJ came out of her office and headed over to the conference room. Everyone followed them along into the conference room and took a seat around the table. "Yesterday, the body of Evan Daniels was discovered in the woods outside of Spokane. There are two other bodies that were also discovered there as well."

"What's the cause of death?" Reid asked looking through the file trying to read about one.

"That's how these deaths are all connected. The ME has not been able to find a cause of death for any of the three victims. There's no puncture wounds, blood, burns, or anything. All he has been able to find is that the organs shut down, but there's no reason why. All of the victims were all physically fit as well as healthy young adults as well," she explained the mysterious case to the team.

"We will have to look around more when we land. Wheels up in thirty," he told the team.

When the plane landed by the Park Rangers station, the team split up. Hotch and JJ stayed at the station to set up, Morgan and Prentiss went to the morgue to see if they could find anything more about the victims, and Reid, Gideon, and Charles headed out to where the body of Evan Daniels had been discovered.

"It looks like there was an obvious struggle happened here," Reid said as they looked around the crime soon. There were branches all of the places. Charles wondered around a bit on his own while Reid and Gideon talked.

"How is there a struggle but really no defensive wounds on the victims?" Gideon asked.

"Hey guys…" Charles piped up after a moment, examining one of the branches lying of the ground nearby. "Notice anything weird?" he asked looking up at the tree.

"What are you thinking about?" Reid asked not understanding what he was supposed to be seeing.

"These branches aren't from these trees. None of the trees have snapped limbs anywhere. Also," he led them over a little way out from the crime scene. "This is the only area with these branch like things," he held the one up that he had been holding. He gave it to Reid.

"These branches are sharp," Reid examined the branch he had been given.

"Could we see where the other bodies were discovered?" Gideon asked the sheriff officer nearby.

The officer took them to another location where each scene looked like it had been ravaged but in some weird fashion or other.

"Would it be okay if I went to the morgue?" Charles asked after they had examined each crime scene and were back at the station.

"What are you thinking?" Reid asked.

"You have an idea?" Hotch asked.

"I want to check something out before I bring it up if that's okay," the intern wringed his hands together nervously. He knew it was not good to keep ideas from the team, but he did not want to voice his idea without having some sort of evidence.

Hotch sent a police officer with the new intern to keep him safe and an eye on him.

"What do you think the kid is thinking?" Morgan asked. "We didn't find anything on how the victims died."

Reid shrugged a bit and the team went back to looking at the behavior that they had on hand.

Charles returned to the station with the police officer after a few hours. "You find what you needed?" Hotch asked seeing the small framed intern return.

"Um yeah. I guess you could say that. I have something to add to victimology," he hugged himself. "Each of the victims is a mutant. At the crime scene where Evan Daniels was discovered there were branches. None of them were from the trees nearby and they were only in a small area where the crime happened. Peitro Maximoff is a speedster. His crime scene looked like a tornado had occurred there and spanned much more land than the other two victims. Finally, Scott Summers had an energy blast just my friend Alex Summers. The difference is that Alex used his body while Scott's energy was concentrated to his eyes. It's why Scott's eyes were red," Charles explained.

"You are positive that they are mutants?" Hotchner asked.

"Yeah. I took DNA samples from each victim and was able to find the X-gene in each victim."

"Really?" Reid asked.

"Well you guys added me to the team because I am the world's leading expert on genetic mutations," he laughed softly. "I do know how to detect a mutant with their genes. It's how I figured out there was a specific gene that was mutated in individuals, giving them extraordinary abilities," Charles explained everything.

"You are incredible!" Reid beamed at Charles and kissed him sweetly in front of the whole team. Charles froze after a brief second of kissing back. Reid also froze after a moment realizing what he had just done. "I-I am so sorry!" he turned red, his eyes wide. He sprinted out of the room.

"S-Spence!" Charles called after him red as well. He then ran out after him. He caught up to the tall agent as he rounded the corner and into the storage room. "Spence," he hugged him from behind.

"I'm sorry. I can't believe I did that," Reid shut his eyes and ran his hands through his hair.

"It's okay, Spence. It's okay," Charles softly cooed into his back.

"I just blew our covers…" he whined. "I just announced to everyone that we are together."

"Is that really such a bad thing?"

"You know the policy about dating coworkers."

"We started flirting with each other before I was even offered the position as intern… Spence…" he pulled away from the taller male. "Are you really that ashamed of me?" his blue eyes glazed over with tears as he backed away from the other.

"No. Of course not," Reid quickly said and took Charles's hands. "I just am not sure what they will do with us now… what if they separate us?" he asked glancing down.

"I've heard every person's thoughts out there, Spence. I've heard their thoughts since we met. They think we would be cute together, or they already noticed how close we were. They knew about us. They have always known."

"What?"

"We weren't hiding it back in Westchester. They noticed how we acted there and noticed how we tried not being together when I joined. They figure we were trying to keep it outside of work, but they also wanted to know that we were happy together."

"I still am worried about what the bureau will do when they find out… What about Hotch? He has to report what happens to us to an extent…." he whined thinking about the unit chief.

"Why don't we step out of here and find out. We'll take whatever happens. Okay?" Charles asked, squeezing Reid's hands.

"Okay," Reid nodded, shutting his eyes with a small sigh to calm himself down.

Charles pulled on Reid's tie to bring his lips to his own. He softly kissed him. Reid was surprised at first, but quickly gave into the kiss. They continued kissing for a moment before the telepath finally pulled away, "Ready to go out?" he asked, smoothing Reid's tie against his chest.

"Uh y-yeah," Reid was dark red.

The smaller male laughed softly seeing the blush. His own cheeks were a light shade of red as well. "Come on, let's go," he softly said.

So, the couple slowly came out of the closet (metaphorically and literally). The team was still in the office. They respected the pair's privacy. Charles was holding Reid's hand when they reentered the room.

"I-I'm sorry about that. I got really excited and yeah…" the genius of the team said.

"You should be sorry," Morgan said to the his friend, "We have been waiting for you two to tell us you were together," he laughed.

"Wh-What?" Reid asked.

"Told you," Charles rolled his eyes a bit.

"Like I said before, you two have been making googly eyes at one another since you two met," Morgan laughed talking to Reid. "We're happy as long as you two are happy."

"What about the rule about coworkers dating?"

"You two seemed to have been dating since before Charles joined the team. Just don't let it interfere with your jobs," Hotch shrugged glancing to the couple.

"Told you things would be okay," Charles squeezed Reid's hand he was still holding.

"Now come on, you're letting it interfere with your jobs. Charles, you pointed out that the victims were all mutants?" Hotch put the team back on track.

"Yes. Each victim was a mutant. Could anyone find anything more about the victims' cause of death?" he glanced to Morgan and Prentiss who both shook their head.

"Why don't you two head to the crime scenes and glance around. Maybe you guys can figure out something more there," the unit chief told Morgan and Prentiss.

"The unsub is either a member of a mutant hate group, or the unsub is a mutant themselves," the mutant of the BAU spoke up.

"Garcia, we need you to look up any mutant hate groups in the area. Is there a way we could figure out who's a mutant and who's not?" the leader got the technical analysis on the phone and directed the last question to the team's expert on the subject.

"Not without using cerebro," Charles nibbled his bottom lip. "Or using something to amplify my own mutation."

"Cerebro?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, it's a machine at the mansion my friend Hank McCoy developed for me. It amplifies my ability so I can connect to anyone and everyone in the world. We used it as a way to find mutants in Westchester."

"What about walking around the town?" Reid asked.

"Maybe," he shrugged.

"I found one mutant hate group in the area," Garcia announced, still on the other end of the line, "I just sent you guys the address."

"Hotch, sir?" Reid quietly piped up.

"Yes, Reid?" the leader glanced over to him.

"If the victimology truly is mutants, I would like to request that we do not use Charles as bait and that someone be with him at all time."

"I agree. Charles, you are not allowed to be on your own at all while the unsub is running around. We don't need a third kidnapping," he gave him a look that warned him against disobeying this order.

"Yes, Sir," the mutant nodded in agreement.

"Gideon, JJ, why don't you two go to the hate group and see if you can find the unsub there?" Hotch more so told them to do so.

And so the team split up with majority of the team leaving. Charles plopped down in a chair and started examining the case file very closely. Reid sat down beside him and also looked over the file.

As the sun started to set, Morgan and Prentiss returned from the crime scenes in the middle of the woods. "Did you guys find anything?" Hotch asked the pair of agents.

"We are not sure what to make of it, but it seems as though there were two mutants in each crime scene with the same mutation maybe? The spikes from Evan Daniels were pointing in different directions and we found an area that looked like a sign of a struggle, but Evan Daniels was found in a different area. Peitro's speed seemed to scatter away from the crime scene but Peitro never left. And finally, a little ways away from where Scott was found, there was sign of his 'optic blast' as you called it, Charles, had hit more trees but Scott probably never made it that far," Emily explained their thought process and showed the mutant expert the pictures of the crime scene.

JJ and Gideon returned just then, "We found some really angry people, but they would have left a mark on the victim if they had murdered them. They support tactics similar to the Holocaust," JJ quietly told the team, "They would round every mutant up and kill them in mass shootings, starvations, or gassing them in large chambers. They would have mutilated the bodies and toss them aside like garbage," JJ shivered with the thought.

"These guys are jerks in their own right, but the unsub isn't a member of their ranks," Gideon said. "The bodies of the victims weren't mutilated or even scratched. They just kind of collapsed to the ground."

"That leaves the idea of the unsub being a mutant themselves," Morgan pointed out.

"I wonder…" Charles mumbled making everyone turn to stare at him with the camera in his hands. "What if the mutant is a new mutant? I am not quite sure what their ability is just yet, but I think maybe they are scared of their ability. They don't know how to control their power yet."

"They don't know how to control it?" Morgan asked.

"We are not born with our abilities. They manifest when the mutant is in adolescence. We are normal until something kind of triggers the mutated X gene to kick in."

"Like schizophrenia?" Reid asked.

"Kind of. The mutated X gene seems to always be triggered in a sense," he tried to explain. "I have heard mutants gaining their abilities in time of distress. Mutations manifest at puberty and are often triggered by periods of heightened emotional stress. There's one mutant from the Holocaust who was being pulled away from his parents and his mutation kicked in, letting him try to bend and open the gate his parents were sent through. It seems many mutants inherit an ability that fits their need at the time it kicks in," Charles explained going into lecture mode. "S-Sorry, I kind of ramble."

"Don't be sorry. You are a genius," Reid offered him a smile.

"So how do we find this mutant?" Hotch asked, leaning back to try to think of a plan.

"Um… this mutant is probably just scared of their mutation. They probably are trying to find someone to help them learn how to control their ability or someone who can help them understand their ability," the professor told them.

"No," Reid quickly shut his train of thought down.

"I didn't even finish my thought," the mutant whined in protest.

"We are not using you as bait."

"There is a scared mutant out there. I was thinking about what if I held a lecture in town?" when he got confused looks, he continued, "I am the world's leading expert on genetic mutations and mutants," he pointed out. "If I had a lecture, the crowd wouldn't have to know about my own ability, and the unsub would attend if they are indeed a scared new mutant."

"We are not using you as bait," Reid protested.

"Can you have a draft of what you would say in your speech written up?" Hotch asked.

"Are you seriously considering this?" the tall brunette asked shocked.

"If he can keep himself from revealing he's a mutant, it might be worth it. He is the expert on mutations. This unsub is scared of their own ability. If there was an expert giving a lecture on mutations, then it is a good way to find where this unsub is," Hotch explained the logic.

"It would also give Charles here the opportunity to educate the town about mutants, so maybe some of the anti-mutant members will reconsider their stance on the subject," Morgan added.

"We will all be in the lecture hall with him. We will be watching the crowd and Charles. As soon as you finish your lecture, you get off that stage and go straight to Reid," Hotch ordered the intern.

"I'll get started on the speech," the intern nodded with a small smile feeling like he could make a difference in this town.

It was decided that Charles would indeed give the lecture in the town. They made fliers and spread the word around the small town. The intern was ordered to give his lecture on mutants, answer a few questions from the audience, and then ordered to go into the arms of Reid. While he was up on the stage, the rest of the team as well as the police offers would watch the crowd to try to find the unsub.

The lecture and short Q and A segment went off without a hitch. They noticed one person in the back, in a long coat with a hood pulled over their head sitting in the back row, close to the door. As Charles finished up, Hotch and a couple other team members moved closer to the young adult. The lecturer finished and went straight to Reid and they met the rest of the team who had pulled the suspect aside. They took off the hood to reveal a teenaged girl.

"Don't touch me, please, don't touch me," the girl pleaded as the team led her out of the hall.

Charles came over to them, "Do as she says. Do not touch her skin directly," he told his own team as Morgan was the one holding her. "Hello there," he talked to the girl.

"Hi," she muttered not too happy with how she was dragged outside. "What is this about?"

"I'm sorry, my dear," he softly said. "We are here looking into the murder of a few people from this town." He noticed her freezing. "You just developed your mutation, haven't you?" he asked her.

"H-How did you know?" she quietly asked.

"It seemed like the deaths were accidents. The person who caused them didn't know what had happened. They just were trying to figure out their own ability. You touch people and are able to gain their mutation… and if you hold on too long, you can even take their life force…" he looked at her a bit concerned.

"I-I didn't mean to do anything," the girl looked up with tears in her eyes. "I-I didn't know what had happened. I-I suddenly felt weird and then I started to see things… and then the other person just fell. I-I didn't know I was still touching them."

Charles glanced over to Hotch nervously and sadly, "She needs to learn how to control her power. She didn't mean for anything to happen to anyone. They were trying to help her," he quietly said. 'She may never be able to touch another person…' he thought.

'We have to turn her in. Hopefully she'll find something to help her out with her mutation,' Hotch thought back to his mutant intern.

'I hope so. It's not her fault… Hotch… what are they going to do about the mutant community… the media will run nuts with a story like this where the killer is a mutant. It doesn't help that her defense is that she doesn't know how to control her ability.'

As Morgan took the girl away, Hotch came over to Charles, "Things will be okay. We aren't going to think of mutants as anything but people. People accidently kill others. It's not a mutant thing. I will do whatever I can to help you with your mutant rights fight," he promised the young member.

"Th-Thank you, Sir," the short male couldn't suppress the urge to hug his boss. He did try to suppress his tears as he saw the young mutant being put into the police cruiser and driven to the station.

"It'll be okay," Hotch hugged the subordinate. "It'll be okay," he rubbed his back comfortingly.

The team got onto the plane, heading home after the case in Spokane's forest. Charles sat beside Reid and after the long day he had experienced, he couldn't help but curl to his boyfriend for comfort. Reid slowly wrapped an arm around the other. It was nice that they had come out to the team as being a couple, and it was even better knowing that the team supported them and were happy for them.

"About time, you two admitted how you two felt," Morgan laughed softly seeing the two together.

"I agree. I need the comfort right now," the telepath mumbled a bit, curled into his partner.

"I'm here for you. Things will be okay," Reid rubbed the other's arm gently. "It'll be okay."

"I still just feel bad for her… She didn't know that would happen, and she just needed someone to help her out. Remind me I made the right career choice?"

"You made the right career choice," Reid kissed the top of Charles's head. "Think of how many people you have saved so far. You have helped this team figure out a lot of cases."

"You are an amazing asset to this team," Hotch patted Charles's shoulder as he boarded the plane.

"Thank you," Charles softly said to the team, and curled into Reid's chest.

"Aren't you two adorable?" Garcia teased coming on the screen of the jet. "I am happy to report that our young mutant girl will be working on her mutation, following some advice that our genius mutant expert has given her and the warden holding her," she smiled at said mutant expert.

"Oh, that's good to hear," Charles smiled a bit.

"Baby girl, you owe me five bucks when we land," Morgan chuckled softly from his seat.

"What? Why?"

"They confessed that they are in a relationship today."

"Y-You guys had a bet on us?!" the telepath turned dark red.

"Yup. Everyone betted how long it would take you two to confess. JJ thought on the first case, Garcia on the second case, I thought the third case, Hotch and Prentiss both thought the fourth case. Gideon actually thought you would remain silent for a few cases actually," Morgan laughed.

"I told you they knew," he whined to Reid.

"You couldn't hide it," Reid pouted.

"To be fair, I didn't want to hide it," Charles giggled and leaned up, pecking Reid on the lips. He blushed realizing the team surrounded them. "Sorry."

"Sure you didn't want to hide it," Reid laughed softly.

"You two are so adorable. I need pictures of you two for my desk," Garcia laughed. "I'll see you guys when you come home," she signed off.

The team started doing their own things. JJ and Prentiss were asleep in their seats, Gideon was reading a book, Hotch was working on the case report and doing other paperwork he had to do, Morgan was listening to his music, Charles was curled up asleep against Reid and Reid just held his partner as he slept, rubbing his arm comfortingly.


End file.
